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W. K. TWEEDIE 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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LAMP TO THE PATH: 



OR, 



THE WORD OF GOD 



IN 



THE HEART, THE HOME, THE WORKSHOP 
AND THE MARKET-PLACE. 



BY W. K. TWEEDIE, D.D. 



WITH A PREFACE 

BY H. L. HASTINGS. 




BOST 



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i 



OOIS'TEE'TS. 



Pag€ 
Preface • ...••... v 



CHAPTER I. 

RELIGION IN THE HEART. 

The Heathen — The Jew — Jouathan Edwards — John Albert Bengel— 
Thomas Halyburton — Pascal, 9 



CHAPTER II. 

RELIGION IN OUR HOMES. 

The Father of the Faithful — Parents and Children — Eli — A Mother^ 
Power — Alfred the Great — Master and Servant, 36 



CHAPTER III. 

RELIGION IN THE WORKSHOP. 

The Christian Workman — A Workshop — Its Occupants — The Sabbath — 
Counsels — Infidelity — Its Hoot — Secularism — Harlan Page — .lolm 
P..iiu;Ls 68 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE, 

The Merchant Princes — Mammon — Counsels — The Perils of Business — 
True Enterprise — Its Limits — The Prevalence of the False — Financial 
Crises — Joseph Hardcastle, • • . • 99 



CHAPTER V. 

RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE — CONTINUED 

Mercantile Mania — The Tulip Marts of Holland — The Mississippi Scheme 
or France — The South Sea Bubble, 136 

CHAPTER YI. 

RELIGION IN THE PROFESSIONS. 

I. The Physician : — Boerhave — Harvey — Hey — Jenner — Dr. John 
Cheyne. II. Thb Lawyer : — Lord Bacon — Sir Matthew Hale — Sir 
William Temple, m. Ministers of Religion : — Dr. Dodd — Other 
Blustrations, 154 



CHAPTER VII. 

RELIGION IN OUR SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 

The Scriptural Rule — Marriage — ine Heroes of Truth — Luther — Calvin 
— Knox — Chalmers, 199 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RELIGION THE CROWN AND GLORY OF MAN'S LIFE. 

Its Director — Its Ornament — The Prelude to Life Eternal — Voltaire — 
S'r Walter Scott — Conclusion, 216 



PEEFACE. 



An intelligent and skillful physician, vigorous, 
athletic, and courageous, used to pursue liis profes- 
sional duties by day or night without anxiety or appre- 
hension. Often he was desired to use a lantern in his 
nightly journeyings, but he laughed at the idea of 
danger, and went his way. One night, walking in 
some slippery path, he fell; an injury resuUed, fol- 
lowed by long months of weariness and pain, and 
finally ending in his death. It was a sad fall, and all 
for want of a lamp. Bitterly did he regret his self- 
confidence when it was too late to remedy the mis- 
chief which it had occasioned. 

There are multitudes to-day who are wandering 
in darkness and walking in unknown ways. They 
are full of strength, and hope, and courage; they do 
not think tliat they are in danger ; though caution is 
commendable in others. This world is full of dark- 
ness; clouds and shadows curtain it on every hand; 
the glooms of the present, the uncertainties of the fut- 
ure, and the shadowy mysteries of the great Beyond, 
teach us with emphasis that we have need of liglit, 
and light wiiich men can never give us. We may 
draw wisdom from the experience of tlie past, but 
what we need ia a knowledge of the future. This 



VI PREFACE. 

knowledge is not attainable througli any human 
intelligence ; it must come from Him who dwelleth 
in light, who is himself the light and life of men, 
and who sends out his light and his truth to lead 
and guide the sons of Adam. Of old it was written, 
*'The commandment is a lamp, and the law is a 
light." The work of the servants of God has been 
to turn the Gentiles *'from darkness to light, and 
from the power of Satan unto God." It is ^'the 
light of the glorious gospel of Christ " which ilhimi- 
nates the darkness of this world ; and those who 
embrace that gospel become the *' children of the 
light," and are *'not of the night nor of darkness." 
Christ was ''the true light which lighteth every man 
that cometli into the world ;" and "this is the condem- 
nation, that light has come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds 
were evil. " Being thus illuminated, and made ' ' light 
in the Lord," we are to *'walk as children of the 
light;" and walking in the light as Christ is in the 
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. 

Whatever course we may take in this life, what- 
ever occupation we may follow, whatever profession 
we may choose, this divine light is needful to us all. 
We need God's word, as a lamp to our feet and a light 
to our path, to show us how to walk. We need it in 
the daily affairs of life ; we need it in the field, in the 
v/ork-shop, and in the marts of business. We need 
the heavenly light to guide us in childhood, in youth, 
in manhood, in old age. We need it whether in pov- 
erty or in riclies, in prosperity or adversity. We need 
it to show us what we ought to do to-day, and to 



PREFACE. vii 

guide us ill our hopes and expectations of the mor- 
row. 

Of old it was written, **the entrance of thy word 
giveth light." If we follow its guidance we shall 
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 
Infidelity may threaten to break our lantern and to 
extinguish our light, but this is not what w^e w\ant. 
It is not enough to extinguish the light w^e have ; we 
need something better. Let the skeptic then tell us 
what is our duty here; let him unfold to us our 
destiny hereafter. Let liim unravel the mysteries of 
Imman existence, let him give us present peace and 
an assurance of future blessing, and we will give 
attention to his words. But we wish no one to extin- 
guish the light we have, and leave us in the darkness 
of a midnight without sun or star, to be bewildered 
by the phantom lights of a false philosophy, and be- 
guiled into the quagmires of doubt and unbelief. 

As w^e trace the history of ages past, we find that 
the destiny of individuals and of nations has been 
foreknown and foretold. We find that men of God 
have looked out upon the great empires and cities of 
antiquity and foreseen their overthrow and announced 
their doom. Following in the track of history, we 
find these predictions have been fulfilled and are ful- 
filling to-day. Babylon is in heaps; Tyre is a place 
where fishermen spread their nets ; Egypt is the basest 
of kingdoms; Nineveh is empty, void and waste; 
Jerusalem is trodden under-foot of the Gentiles; 
Capernaum is cast down to tlie deptlis of ol)livion; 
Israel have been led away captive into all nations, 
and are scattered through every land; and abundant 
evidences before our eyes show beyond the possibility 



Vlll PREFACE. 

of doubt or question, tliat an Omniscient One has 
read the future, and that His Spirit has inspired the 
holy men of old who spake as tlicy were moved of 
the Holy Ghost, and revealed to mankind in advance 
tlie great events of human histor^^ 

We each need such a revelation as that ; one which 
will tell us our present duties and our future pros- 
pects ; one which will show us what is the will of 
God in this life, and what we may expect at His hand 
hereafter. 

And such a revelation is given us, to inspire our 
hearts with hope, and to guide our feet in paths of 
safety. AVe have, in the written word of God, prom- 
ises to cheer us, counsels to direct us, reproofs to ad- 
monisli us ; and a more sure word of prophecy, where- 
unto we do well that we take heed, as ' ' unto a light 
til at sliineth in a dark place, until the day-dawn, 
and the day-star arise."' 

It is this Lamp to the Path which a friendly hand ex- 
tends to the wanderers and toilers in a benighted and 
sinful world ; in the hope that many may turn their 
feet into God's testimonies, and their faces towards 
that city where the Lamb is tlie light, and where 
gloom and darkness are unknown ; and prove in their 
own glad experience the truth of the word of Him 
who said, ''He that foiioweth Me shall not walk in 
darkness, but shall have the light of life." 

H. L. H. 

Boston, July, 1884. 



A LAMP TO THE PATH. 



CHAPTER I. 

RELIGION IN THE HEART. 



As years roll over U3, and as our delusive expectations 
from earth and time slowly melt away, the complaint 
is very often heard that the world is growing w^orse. 
The truth is, that we are only then beginning to see 
the world in its true light. The visionary hopes 
which we once entertained have vanished, and the 
mirage is discovered to be neither a lake nor a 
stream. Perhaps we have had to eat the fruit 
of bitter disappointment or of blighted liope; and 
because our baseless anticipations have not been 
realized, we hasten to the conclusion that the world 
is fast sinking into hopeless corruption ; that is, be- 
cause the accounts which the Scriptures give have 
been found to be true, we are ready to suppose that 
the w^orld is every year more and more distempered. 



10 SOREOW AND ITS ORIGIN. 

Hence the peevishness of some — hence activities 
cramped — hence querulous complaints — hence, in a 
few cases, the very spirit of Ishmael, whose hand 
was against every man, while every man's hand 
was against him. 

Against this, however, as against every form of 
error, we are carefully warned in the Word of God. 
^' Say not thou, What is the cause that the former 
days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire 
wisely concerning this/' The truth is, they were 
not better — it is we that look at them from a different 
point, or try them by a different standard ; in other 
words, ive change. Our dreams have ended in the 
nothing whence they rose. We looked for only 
smiles and sunshine, and have had to grapple with 
very stern realities. We persisted in regarding 
this world as something very different from what 
the Word of God describes — a place whei'e man's 
only sure portion is grief; but have at length dis- 
covered that the Word of God is true. Hence our 
sorrow and disappointment ; hence the morbid com- 
plaints, and the cheerless repinings of age not seldom 
succeed to the visions, the dreams, and the delusions 
of youth. 

But far from *' saying that the former times were 
better than these,'' we feel that never was there an 
age in which so much was done as in ours, to help 
forward tlie great cause of truth and the reclaiming 
of the world to God. We know that vice has been 
unmasked in most appalling forms ; but that is 



EXPLANATIONS. 



11 



because philanthropy has grappled with crime in its 
own dens, and dragged i'c into daylight, till thou- 
sands are revolted and appalled. We know that 
superstition is still trampling men in myriads into 
the dust, while the Word of God, and all that would 
elevate man from his deep degradation, is hated and 
put down wherever superstition has the power ; but 
that is only because the systems which are antago- 
nistic to the truth have been roused to more resolute 
efforts by the earnestness of the friends of man. 
And we know that oppression in many lands, is still 
goading multitudes to madness, immuring them in 
dungeons, or hurrying them to death; but that is only 
because the oppressor instinctively feels that the tide 
is rising which must eventually sweep him from hid 
place. 

The struggles now made, then, to perpetuate the 
reign of bondage, and doom men to mental and spi- 
ritual vassalage for some centuries more, are symp- 
tomatic of a waning, not a waxing cause; and the 
philanthropist may accordingly rejoice. Progression 
is the law of the universe; and all the powers of 
darkness cannot always, or long supersede it. If 
the bad be growing worse, the good are growing 
better, more strong, and more aggressive. TLey 
now realize their mission more than they did half 
a century ago. They are also more closely baiuUd 
to promote it; so that, instead of joining in the cr.' 
that the former times were better than these, wc are 
prompted to regard our day as signalized abovo 



12 PKOOFS OF PROGRESS. 

most by its schemes of earnest philanthropy^ its 
plans of mighty scope, and its luminous designs for 
gathering in the nations to the sway of the Prince 
of Peace. Now abideth faith, hope, and love, be- 
yond most of the ages which are past : faith, which 
takes hold of Omnipotence, and therefore cannot be 
baffled ; hope, which turns the future triumphs of 
the good and the true into present joy; and love, 
which exults in the prospect of man's ultimate 
emancipation, according to the mind of God. 

Meanwhile, all the crime beneath which our blighted 
earth is groaning, does not retard by a day the final 
completion of the eternal plan. Truth is spreading. 
Providence, hand in hand with grace, is slowly sap- 
ping the hoary systems which have long enthralled 
our race. Those who support the truth of God are 
more and more clearly ranged upon one side, and 
standing heart to heart in defence of the holy and 
the pure. Those who support error by oppression 
are more and more clearly ranged upon the other; 
and we need not feel more assured that the sun will 
rise in the firmament to-morrow, or that rivers will 
continue to hasten to the ocean, than that truth is 
slowly triumphing, and error gradually erecting its 
own funeral pile. Symptoms of these results appear 
equally manifest in the Church and in the world. 

But in every department, men must labour for 
these ends. As God has given to every one his 
measure of power, he is to put it forth — or of light, 
he is to let it shine. The Christian indeed is pre- 



DOUBTS. 13 

eminently a patriot. " Not one of us lives to him- 
self;'' and, in contemplating this subject, it has 
sometimes occurred to us to inquire whether the 
ministers of religion be sufficiently explicit, minute, 
and detailed in their lessons on the Sabbath. Over 
thousands of congregations each recurring week, 
there are diffused from the pulpit, doctrines the 
most ennobling, allied, in many cases, to lessons the 
most cogent and pure. Line upon line is employed, 
if, by any means, some may be saved, and the truth 
of God carried, by the Spirit's power, through the 
heart and the conscience to the hand and the life. 

AYithal, however, is there not reason to believe 
that there is still room for more precise and definite 
instructions than are sometimes conveyed? It is 
obviously one thing for a soul passively to acquiesce 
in a doctrine, and another thing to apply the truth 
to practice ; to give it the control of the life, that 
man maybe like-minded with God, and "pure as 
He is pure/' — There have been men in all ages who 
held a faultless creed, yet led a godless life ; who 
would tithe their mint, their anise, and cummin, and 
yet forget the weightier matters of the law. There 
have been not a few who took rank in the Christian 
Church, who could not be trusted in the market-place. 
Some who had fallen into the hands of the public 
prosecutor, have, with all the indignation of injured 
innocence, resented it as an offence, when those who 
watch for the spiritual good of n^.en ventured to pre- 
vent them from polluting the holy place. In one 



14 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

point of view, the world thus seems to he more care- 
ful or more high-toned than the Church ; and that 
irresistibly suggests the question, Can a remedy be 
found for this sore evil ? Without interfering for a 
day with the preaching of those doctrines which 
come from God as a light to guide us to Him, can 
aught be added to our present appliances, to rescue 
self-deluded men from their self-delusions, and at 
least render their number fewer in the different 
branches of the Holy Catholic Church ? 

The times appear to be specially favourable for 
promoting such an object. It is a characteristic of 
our age, for which we have high reason to be thank- 
ful . to God, that the spiritual welfare of man is 
largely regarded. It is now clearly seen that the 
true interests of one class are the true interests of 
all. It is no longer antagonism, it is co-operation; 
to a large extent, it is brotherhood and harmony ; 
it is liberal things devised on the one hand, and 
rejoiced in upon the other, at least in the land in 
which it is our blessedness to live. Grave men in 
the Church, and powerful men in the State, are 
busy here; nay, royalty itself, does not disown the 
employment. The prince co-operates with the peer, 
and both together hold out the hand, not of lordly 
patronage — that is cold and repulsive — but of bro- 
therly-kindness and love. 

We thus see at least the dawning of a state of 
things which has no doubt been too long retarded, 
to our shame; but which may be blessed by God, not 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 15 

to introduce an Utopia, or a golden age ; not to roll 
away the need of labour, or the lot of suffering — 
these are component parts of man's existence uj.oii 
earth; but to soothe the sorrows, to dry the tear^, 
and elevate the pursuits of those who might other 
wise be woew^orn and unfriended for life. In a word^ 

"The purple pride that scowls at wretchedness," 

IS now scowled at in its turn, wherever the Word of 
God is free, and under its hallowing power, the 
brotherhood of man are becoming more manifestly 
brothers. 

To help on these results, then, we would now 
try to bring sound doctrine into actual contact with 
men's souls, that it may produce sound practice. 
*'The form of sound words" is to be prized above 
every earthly thing, but unless these words lead 
to right actions, they leave us still in the condition of 
Chorazin and Bethsaida of old. We would there- 
fore try to take the truth of God in our hand; we 
would go under its escort, to the places of daily 
business or daily toil, there to apply the simple but 
often searching maxims which came from heaven to 
guide men through life on earth to glory. — We need 
expect no permanent amelioration for man except 
through the power and the prevalence of truth, and 
every attempt to elevate his nature to its true dig- 
nity by any other means, is either the effort of an 
empiric or the deception of an impostor. The simple 
theory of human progression, the only and exclusive 



16 THE LABOURS OF SISYPHUS. 

means of purifying man, is to make hira like-minded 
with God again. 

Now, as the mind of God can be learned onl}- from 
his Word, everything but that will prove as unavail- 
ing as the labours of Sisyphus — 

" up the high hill he heaves the huge rotmd stone ; •• 

but it recoils in spite of all his toil, rr^ so will 
every effort to elevate fallen man apart fiom the 
truth of God. We decline no fair ally. Nay, we 
would invoke the aid of all that is salutary either for 
mind or body. But unless the truth sit at the helm, 
and preside over all ; unless the mind of God become 
the mind of man, man is still a degraded being ; he 
is ignorant alike of his chief end and his chief good. 
In short, permanently to benefit man either for time 
or eternity without the knowledge of God, is a task 
as hopeless as that of Adam when he tried to hide 
among the trees of the garden. — Along the moun- 
tain-sides of some districts in this land we see traces 
of the culture of former generations at much higher 
levels than cultivation now^ reaches ; but, deserted 
now as unproductive, these patches are re-claimed 
by the heath or the furze : they fm-nish no food at 
least for the use of man ; and are not these signifi- 
cant emblems of the attempts to cultivate man with- 
out the knowledge of his God ? The sepulchre may 
be white-washed, or sin covered over and concealed ; 
but all is impurity, all is moral deformity still, in 
the eye of Ilim who judges righteous judgment. 



THE SOVEREIGN PANACEA. It 

We therefore take the Word of God as the grand 
rule, the sovereign panacea in our hand. We try to 
apply tlic system of mingled holiness, and mercy, 
and truth, and love, which is there disclosed, to guide 
the lives of mortals ; and in prosecuting thi. design, 
the following is our plan. We try to show — 

L Christianity in the Heart ; for, unless it is found 
there, we need not expect to find it anywhere 
besides. 

II. Christianity in the Home. It must next appear 

there. Parents and children, masters and 
servants, or the employers and the employed, 
must all feel the genial or the curbing power 
of truth in their several places and relations. 

III. Christianity in the Workshop — from which 
its influence has too long been banished. 

IV. Christianity in the Market-place^ the place of 
bargains and of busy trade. 

V. Christianity in the Professions: 1. The physi- 

cian ; 2. The lawyer ; 3. The divine. 

VI. Christianity in our ordinary social intercourse; 
and. 

Finally, Christianity, as the crown and glory of 
man's existence upon earth. 

Now, it is too manifest to require any discussion, 
that unless Christianity be planted in the heart, it 
cannot control the life. A religion merely for the 
hand has never done much for man. A creed wliich 

B 



18 THE WILLING WORKMAN. 

teaches us only to cleanse the outside of the cup, has 
never succeeded in elevating us far, or making us 
kindred either Avith the pure or the lofty. A mere 
collection of doctrines, though each he scriptural 
and sound, has never availed to restore man to hap- 
piness and God. Merely to do as our fathers did, 
or hold, however tenaciously, a mere ancestral faith, 
is not the process by which the evil that is in man 
can be corrected. The soldier who is dragged to 
the battle-field is not likely to become a hero. The 
man who is carried to a foreign land in chains, 
seldom becomes one of its benefactors. He who 
needs compulsion and the rod ere he will acquire 
even the rudiments of learning, is not likely soon to 
become a ripe scholar. In every department, it is 
the willing mind, the earnest spirit, the hearty, zealous 
labourer, who achieves great results. The heart 
must be thrown into the pursuit, even though it were 
only some menial employment ; and if that be not 
the case, then, however he may be engaged, man 
will either be disgusted and repelled, or doomed t( 
drag a heavy chain amid his toil. 

And this is pre-eminently the case in religion. It 
is with Him who looks on the heart that we have 
there to do— as is the heart, so is our religion. A 
new heart is accordingly the first and the grand de- 
sideratum. All the heart is to be given to God, and 
till that be conceded, we have not done obeisance to 
the first and great commandment. The law of God 
is to be written on the heart, or in truth v/e never 



THE HEART UNMASKED. 19 

obey it. "We may as well suppose that the ten com- 
mandments could guide the Hebrews, while these 
precepts were merely written on the tables of stone^ 
far up amid the clouds of Sinai, as that the truth 
of God can profit, or illumine the soul, while it 
only floa,^ in the understanding or the memory, 
without sinking into the heart. Nay, the thunders 
of Sinai, amid which the commandments were 
given, had scarcely died away, when the people who 
had heard them ceased to fear and quake — they 
set up a golden calf, and worshipped it as their God; 
and that forms one of the most instructive facts of 
history. It seems incredible to the man who does 
not know the guile Avhich lurks in the heart, but it 
sheds a full though a lurid light upon the soul, in 
the eyes of him who has been guided by the truth 
through the intricate mazes of iniquity which exi;| 
within us. 

Or, far more than this. Ten thousand times tet 
thousand may possess the gospel as well as the law. 
Not merely the authority, the power, or the terrors ol 
the Lord may be brought to bear upon their minds — 
His love, his pity, and compassion, may also be re- 
vealed, and entreaties the most touching, or invita- 
tions the most free, may be mingled with promises the 
most cheering, and all may be employed to induce us 
to profit by them, while the heart may continue proof 
against them all. The truth of God may be no truth 
to us ; His love in the Saviour may exercise no con- 
straining power — and what is the reason ? How are 



20 TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD. 

we to explain the fact that the mind of God has no 
control over the minds of myriads of men, so that 
countless favours are received without awakening one 
grateful response? The reason is, truth was never 
stamped upon the heart. It is not understood that 
with the heart man believes unto righteousness. The 
first and great commandment, " Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, 
and all thy strength and mind," is not felt, and not 
obeyed; and men, in consequence, often drink up ini- 
quity with the very Word of God open before them, 
soliciting their hearts and their affections for their 
Lord. They have his Word, but it is perverted to 
light them on the way to a more certain ruin. 

This is all abundantly plain. If we have ever 
given so much as one solemn hour to God, to eternity, 
and the soul, it must be manifest that until the affec- 
tions be set on things above, all else is vain. The 
heart is the citadel of the whole man, and until that 
be on the Lord's side, the enemy will find a strong- 
hold there, from which no power on earth can dis- 
lodge him. Is a man living in a state of estrangement 
from God ? Does the Heart- searcher know that that 
man is perpetrating sin and regardless of his soul? 
The explanation of all that is, that the heart has never 
been given to God. Christianity is not there. Truth 
is not there — its place is occupied by lies. The love 
of the Saviour is not there. The Word of God is a 
dead and a despised lettei*. The foundation of the 
spiritual fabric has never been laid. The first im- 



ILLUSTRATIONS, 21 

pulse heavenward has not been given. The Spirit 
of God is not honoured in the heart as the temple 
where he delights to dwell. Religion at the best is 
a cold and formal thing. It only decorates t'le ex- 
terior, like trappings on a hearse. God is not 'm such 
a man's thoughts — Christ is not in his soul the hope 
of glory. The gulf between God and hij^ ^s still a 
yawning void, and the eternal life which 3S placed 
within his reach is practically despised. 

The illustrations of religion in the heart crowd 
upon us on every side. Let us conte^\? plate a few, 
ind place them in the way of contract. 

There is a man whose heart the Lord has touched 
with great love to souls. He learns that myriads 
are perishing in distant lands. That oppresses hiin 
with the weight of a personal woe ; he takes his life in 
his hand and hastens away to icll the perishing of a 
Saviour. Now, in his t^orji of faith, and labour of 
love, that man is dealing, Jet us suppose, with two of 
the youth of a dark-oouled land. He is pressing 
on the conscience the claims of God, on the under- 
standing his truth, ar.d on the heart his love; but 
against all these appliances one of the two is stout- 
hearted, and ste^^ed. There is no room in his soul 
either i'or the S^pirit of God or his truth. Some idol 
has erected h*s temple there, and that idol, however 
hideous, is Ayorshipped with the devotcdness which 
is du^e only to God over all. Hence the heart is 
shut And fortified against the truth; lience the (Jod of 
tr.Hh 7? rejected and disowned. The whole man is 



1 



22 CONSCIENCE ASCENDANT. 

preoccupied. The affections are engrossed by a 
worthless or revolting thing ; and as there was no 
room in the dwellings of men for the Saviour when 
he came to earth, there is no room in the soul of that 
man for truth, though it brings salvation and the ful- 
ness of joy in its train. The secret of the whole is, 
that the heart is not impressed ; it is never touched, 
and it therefore repels the approaches of Him who 
is love, as the granite rock repels the spray of the 
ocean. 

But the case is different in regard to the other 
of the two : conscience in him feels the power of the 
truth ; it cannot deny the charges which are brought 
against it ; nay, it repeats and enforces them every 
one, and then begins the struggle for the control of 
the heart. Though the conscience be convinced, 
the heart may not be surrendered, and in conse- 
quence of that, a pain, an absolute distraction is 
sometimes produced — it has been described as the 
plucking out of a right eye. 

Now, when does that struggle cease? When is that 
eoul really surrendered to the supremacy of God? It 
is when the truth finds its way to the heart, and is 
planted there by the Spirit who revealed it. As long 
as it remained only in the conscience, it stimulated, 
it roused, it agitated, it produced only commotion or 
woe ; or, in the understanding, it instructed or de- 
lighted ; but when the truth of God passed through 
the conscience into the heathen heart, the whole 
man was speedily captured. There was now the 



THE CHANGE. 



23 



willing mind, there was now the pliant disposition. 
Idols w^ere now abandoned. The Son of God w^as 
rejoiced in, and he who before had carried the badge 
of his idol on his very brow, as if to glory in his 
shame, now^ felt all the degradation of bowing down 
to an idol at all. The strongest earthly affection — 
that of a mother to a cherished son — might obstruct 
the path which led from idols to God, and other 
woes might come on the believer ; but his heart 
had owned the majesty of truth, whatever it might 
entail. Truth, the truth of God, had taught him that 
there is something stronger, deeper, and more con- 
straining than even the love of a mother to a son — 
namely, the lov^e of the Saviour to the saved, and 
their love to Him in return — and thus, that soul, 
amid sorrows which are agonizing to flesh and 
blood, chooses the better portion. Like one who is 
truly wise, that man, lately so dark and idolatrous, 
now prefers the love of God to the love of a creature 
— and that is Christianity in the heart. That is 
religion taking the helm of life. That is truth occu- 
pying the citadel of the soul. That is God enthroned. 
That is conscience obeyed. That is reason r -occu- 
pying the sphere from which it was banished at the 
fall. That is the promise fulfilled, ^' A new heart will 
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.'' 

Or contemplate another example of Christianity in 
the heart, as the root and fountain of all that is lovely 
and of good report in the life. 

Another man has gone with no less love to soula 



24 INQUIRY. 

than the former, to ^vin some of the far- fallen Jew« 
to the Saviour. In that work he encounters insult 
upon insult, and everything but Christian faith, and 
Christian hope and love, would there faint and fail. 
He also is surrounded by crowds of inquirers or 
objectors — let us select two for their contrast. One 
of them is full of hereditary hatred to the truth as it 
is in Jesus; and that very name which is to the 
Christian a strong tower, is to that dark-souled man 
a provocative to wrath and spiteful passion — And 
why? Because that heart is pre-occupied. That 
man has never once seen the presented truth, so 
thick is the veil which blinds him ; he has never 
once felt its power, so hard is the incrustation which 
envelopes his heart. The love and pity, as well as 
the holiness and truth of God, are shut out from his 
soul, for the repugnance and the recoil of the heart 
drive them utterly aw^ay. He thus furnishes another 
example of the fact, that there does not exist in all 
the world, a more intense antagonism than that of 
man's polluted heart to the pure truth of God. 

But the other of the two inquires — he is willing at 
least to ascertain what a Christian is. He listens, 
and the great truth which is the basis of all per- 
sonal religion — conviction of sin in the sight of God 
— begins to be felt. AYhether Christianity be true 
or not, that man discovers, from his own Hebrew 
Bible, that he is a sinner. He perceives that Judaism, 
even in all its glory, could not take away sin, and 
much less now when it is worn out, or not the 



THE Ji:W, A CHRISTIAN. 25 

shadow or the echo of Its former self. In that state 
of soul, that man comes nearer to Jesus of Naza- 
reth than he had ever done before. He reads ; he 
marks; he inwardly digests; he begins to pray. The 
Redeemer's history now becomes full of meaning. 
*^ He was despised, and we esteemed him not" — " He 
was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised 
for our iniquities" — '' The Lord has laid on him the 
iniquities of us all" — " They shall look on him whom 
they have pierced" — These, or texts like these, now 
begin to be seen in the light which the Spirit of God 
sheds on them, or felt in the power which that Spirit 
imparts to truth, and they flash upon the earnest man's 
mind with a meaning which he never saw before. 

That man now begins, then, to feel that the truth 
is just what he as a sinner needs; and in the train ot 
that, it begins to take possession of the heart. It gives 
a new tone or a new colour to his life. By secur- 
ing the command of the heart, it converts a Jew 
into a new creature in Christ. He begins to glory 
in what was once a stumbling-block, the Cross; or to 
be ashamed of what was once his glory, his self- 
righteousness; and as the aspect of the earth when 
the sun is shining in the radiance of day is different 
from its aspect when midnight reigns, that man's 
soul is different now from what it lately was. Chi-is- 
tianity is in the heart; and as the blood is propelled 
from the heart to tl'C extremities, spreading life and 
activity as it flows, truth, the truth whicli (he S[)int 
teaches now circulates through the whole inner nuin, 



26 THE HOME HEATHEN. 

reducing everything there to the obedience that is in 
Christ, The waste places are cultivated. Th(^ spiri- 
tual fabric is founded, and the great Master-builder 
will in due time perfect the whole. 

Or, without referring either to Heathen or to Jew, 
we might select some two in our own favoured land 
for a contrast. We might picture an assembly of 
men met in the house of God to worship the King 
EternaL Immortal, and Invisible, and single out two 
of the worshippers to illustrate religion in the heart; 
and let us thus single out two. They worship side 
by side. They hear the same voice — they listen to 
the same gospel, the same appeals to the conscience, 
the same lessons for the understanding, the same glad 
tidings for the heart. They are pointed to the same 
Saviour, and are equally told of his power and 
his willingness to save. Redemption now, and not 
to-morrow — redemption perfect and complete, without 
waiting for any supplement from man — redemption 
for ''the ungodly,"^ and not for those who have 
already repented; in a w^ord, salvation /ree/7/, salva- 
tion immediateJij, and salvation completely, is offered 
or pressed on the notice of each of the two, according 
to the Word of the Eternal. 

But amid this affluence of mercy, this plenitude 
of love, one of them continues indifferent, hardened, 
and without God. Every new appeal is resisted, 
and so thickens the incrustation which has gathered 

* See Rom. v. 6, and compare Acts v. 31. 




THE WAYWARD HEART. 27 

round the heart. All within is dead and cold. 
Religion brings no joy. It seems a system to fetter, 
and not to emancipate; and as that man cannot hoth 
sin and be a Christian, his heart continues shut 
against the influence which would separate him from 
his sins. The secret of all this is, that that heart 
is still the victim or the dupe of lies. There is no 
Christianity admitted into it. The truth of God is 
kept far away from the centre of man's being. Lest 
that truth should enter the heart, it is kept carefully 
guarded; it is crowded with worldly cares, or plunged 
into worldly follies, but left dreary and desolate as 
to all that is divine; the waters of Marah are never 
sweetened there; the soul is perishing with redemption 
in its offer; it is self-doomed to woe and to bitterness, 
while the Spirit of God through his Word is beckon- 
ing it to glory and to honour. 

The other of the two worshippers, however, has 
found out that " one thing is needful." He has 
listened to conscience. He has taken counsel with 
right reason. He has surrendered the heart to God, 
and that is the decisive moment when man's name 
is written in the book of life. It is then that the 
kingdom of God begins to be within us, then that 
we learn both how wayward is the heart, and how 
mighty is the grace of God to subdue it. Light 
now radiates where all was dark before; joy is now 
felt where all was cheerless ; and the new-born sen- 
sation of spiritual freedom brings a presage of tha 
glorious liberty of the children of God. 



28 CONTRASTS AND COLLISIONS. 

And what renders it more needful to urge on this a3- 
cendancy of truth in the heart is, the opposition which 
it is sure to encounter in the world. AYhile wo sail 
down the world's stream, we may glide pleasantly 
along, and need neither the canvass nor the oar; but 
the moment we attempt to stem it, the struggle and 
the conflict begin : we must either earnestly contend, 
or be carried down to ruin. What is it that produces 
thunder? It is the meeting of contraries, or fire and 
w^ater. What is it that produces the earthquake? 
It is a simiLnr cause — the meeting of contraries, or 
substances which cannot quietly co-exist. AY hat is 
it that occasions war, and massacre, and devastation? 
It is still a similar cause. It is passion in collision 
with passion. It is the tyrant seeking to oppress 
the free. It is ambition grasping at more and more, 
and trampling upon all who oppose its pleasure — 
and the same law obtains in religion. Why are 
God's people often of all men the most miserable? 
Whence come persecutions? They come because 
holiness in the godly and sin in the world have 
come into collision. The will of God is opposing or 
protesting against the passions of men, and on that 
account there is war on the one hand, produced by 
inflamed passion on the other. 

A church, a flock, for farther example, has long 
been afflicted with an unconverted ministry, and all is 
peaceful there, for all is spiritual death. But there 
comes a change. A converted ministry is raised up, 
and now begins the collision between spiritual lifj 



THE VICTORY. 29 

and spiritual death. Ere the truth get access to the 
heart, it must fight every inch of the way. 

Or there is a family where, up to a certain period, 
all is unmitigated worldliness ; not one soul is there 
alive to God. — But in His sovereign time one mem- 
ber is converted, and then perhaps begin the collision 
and the strife. The world resents the intrusion or 
the rebuke implied in spiritual decision ; and if that 
heart will love God's pure truth, it must zealously 
contend. 

Or there is an individual soul. It has long slum- 
bered, as the world does, without God and without 
hope. No compunction has roused it, and no alarm 
been felt. But something at last occurs to disturb 
that false peace. Truth enters the conscience. It 
operates there like a visit from the living to the 
catacombs of Egypt, when the night-birds are dis- 
turbed in crowds, and threaten, by their multitudinous 
flutterings, to blind or to destroy the intruder. Thus, 
if truth will take possession of a heart for God, it 
must encounter and vanquish a thousand enemies. In 
that conflict man needs the whole armour of God, for 
he has to fight the good fight of faith. His enemies 
may be those of his own houseliold, or even his 
own heart; and nothing but the free Spirit of the 
living God can make man sure of victory in that 
contest. 

Perhaps it is superfluous to occupy so much time 
in illustrating what is, in truth, so plain. Yet, as 
many overlook this plainness, it should be urged in 



30 



THE NEW HEART. 



line upon line, that if we would begin aright, we 
must begin at the heart, out of which flow the issues 
of life. One of the most earnest prayers in the Bible 
is, ^'Create in me a clean heart, God,"* and one 
of its most emphatic or comprehensive promises is, 
'' A new heart will I give you."-}- And would men 
learn that simple lesson, did they in their several 
places and relations as superiors, inferiors, or equals, 
seek to begin at the beginning, and have the heart 
right with God through the new-creating power of 
His Spirit, how sweetly would the whole frame- 
work of society soon be adjusted! how surely would 
" all the building, fitly framed together, grow into 
an holy temple in the Lord !" The Church would be 
more pure. The world would not be so often cheered 
in its ungodly ways, by the example of men pro- 
fessing the truth, but holding it in unrighteousness, 
because they are destitute of Christianity in the 
heart, where it should ever reign as the unchallenged 
and unrivalled queen. — There are some ruins of 
ancient cities now buried deep under water. AYhen 
the waves above them are calm, these ruins can still 
be seen, though centuries have rolled away since 
they were first submerged. Yet who would regard 
these waste places as the abodes of living men? Who 
would speak of them as the haunts of the happy? 
Nay, life has vanished from them ; all that ever lived 
there have been for centuries destroyed. And, in the 
Bame way, the heart that is sunk in worldliness or 



* Ps. li. la 



t Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HEART. 31 

saturated with what is earthly and sensual, is cut off 
from all communion with the living God; it is dead 
to holiness and Him. 

We cannot glance at the lives of godly men with- 
out noticing the prominence which belongs to this 
subject of religion in the heart. Their first aspiration 
is for the friendship of God, and their next, their per- 
petual longing is to have the heart right with Him ; 
" to keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are 
the issues of life." We open the life of one man of 
God at random. He says, '^ An inward sweet sense 
of divine things at times came into my heart, and my 
soul was led away in pleasant views and contempla- 
tions of them." '• The sense I had of divine things 
would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet 
burning in my heart, an ardour of soul that 1 know 
not how to express." " I was almost constantly in 
ejaculatory prayer wherever I was. Prayer seemed 
as the breath by which the inward burning of my 
heart had vent." ^* My fonner delights never reached 
the heart, and did not arise from any sight of the 
divine excellence of the things of God.'' " My heart 
panted after this, to lie low before God as in the dust, 
that I might be nothing, and God might be all; that 
I might become as a little child." '' Oftentimes in 
reading the Holy Scriptures, every word seemed to 
touch ray heart; I felt a harmony between some 
thing in my heart and those sweet and powerful 
words." * 



♦ Jonathan Edwards. 



32 WITNESSES. ~ ! 

Another says, " God, impress more deeply ol 
nay heart thine exceeding great and precious pro- 
miser^, that I may perfect holiness in thy fear/' 
'* Though God's pure Word is presented to worldly 
men in ever such a variety of ways ; though the pro- 
vision be ever so daintily served up, none of them 
relish it at heart. As well might the preacher have 
the restless and ungovernable waves of the sea before 
him, and think to control them with the rod of Moses, 
or the words of Christ, ' Peace, be still.'" " In his 
earliest years he had many pure, tender feelings, and 
stirrings of his heart concerning God, and the texts 
inscribed on the church walls of his native town, from 
the Epistle to the Rum an s, concerning death, sin, 
righteousness, and the crucifixion, produced in him, 
as a mere child, emotions of great joy and peace, and 
left upon him very profitable and lasting impressions.'' 
'' How may I know that I am become an heir of 
heaven? How may I know that God is in me of a 
truth ? When I have the earnest of the inheritance, 
that is, when I am habitually led by the Spirit of 
God, so as to walk in love, with my heart cr^ung to 
him, Abba, Father ! and listening to every whisper 
of his Holy Spirit."^- 

Another says, " My heart was utterly averse from 
spirituality. Sometimes, through the force of convic- 
tions, I was indeed brought for some time to aim at 
getting my mind fixed upon heavenly things, and 



• John Albert BengeL 



WITNESSES. 33 

kept on the thoughts of them ; but my heart being 
still carnal, I wearied of this bent and of this forcible 
religion ; it was intolerable to think of being always 
spiritual/' ** I abominated the more gross breaches 
of all the commands, and disliked open sins. But, 
meanwhile, my heart was set upon the less discern- 
ible violations of the same holy law.'' " Under a 
searching ministry, the Lord began to give me some 
discoveries of the more secret and spiritual evils of 
my heart. He carried me ' into the secret cham- 
ber of imagery,* to let me see what my heart did in 
the dark." " Though sin might prevail, my heart 
was not with it as before ; I found another sort of 
opposition made to it." "I have looked on death as 
stripped of all things pleasant to nature. I have con- 
sidered the spade and the grave, and everything that 
is in it terrible to nature ; and under the view of all 
these, I found that in the way of God they gave 
satisfaction — not only a rational satisfaction, but a 
heart-engaging power attending it, that makes me 
rejoice."* 

One of the profoundest thinkers that ever lived 
has said, '' There are only two kinds of persons who 
can properly be styled reasonable : those who serve 
God with all their heart, because they know Him ; 
and those who seek Him with all their heart, because 
they know him not."-!*. 

— But it is needless to prolong such illustrations. 

* Thomas Hal y bur ton. f Pascal, 

C 



J4 ' WITNESSES. 

TTuman nature, revelation, and daily experience, agree 
in testifying to the necessity of planting the truth in 
the heart of man, if it is to control his life. For that 
purpose the Spirit of God is sent to take the truth 
from the sacred page, where He himself has placed 
it, and stamp it on the soul. And 0, what man con- 
sents to sacrifice, by keeping truth in the outer court 
as the Gentiles were kept in the outer court of the 
Jewish Temple ! What holy joy ! What hopes and 
consolations ! What communion with God he forfeits ! 
Or, how blind the world to its own best interests, when 
the truth is kept cold and shivering, apart from the 
soul and the heart ! How would the woes of a groan- 
ing world be soothed — how would our biting and 
devouring of each other cease — how would swords 
be beat into ploughshares, and spears into pruning- 
hooks, were truth enthroned in the heart, and suffered 
to control the life ! A single sentence of that truth, 
honestly believed and obeyed, would soon revolution- 
ize a world ; and should not every Christian therefore 
be busy, earnest, and solemn, in spreading the truth ; 
in seeking to have it planted deep in his own soul 
first, and then in the souls of all ? 

Moreover, the world is very solemn now, it is earnest 
and devoted ; it is perfectly convinced, however baseless 
the conviction, that time is all in all. For example, 
mark that atheist. They who do not know the dark 
depths of man's heart will not believe that a soul so 
monstrous can exist; but as if to pi'ove the truth of 
the Word of God, a bold blasphemer has stood forth 



THE NEED OF ZEAL. 35 

to deny God's existence, and challenged Him to prove 
that the impious one was wrong, by striking him 
dead upon the spot. Or mark that knot of infidels. 
They are assembled to devise the means of spreading 
their poison, and import additional supplies from other 
lands, because the home growth is not sufficient. Or 
mark that group of papists. They are daily plotting 
the suppression of God's truth, the enslaving of man's 
soul, and deepening the darkness which already en- 
velopes him. All, all are earnest, zealous, sanguine 
in the pursuit of evil — and shall they who hold the 
truth be alone lethargic, listless, apathetic? The 
infidel has been heard to declare, that if he believed 
what Christians profess to believe, he would be far 
more zealous than they. In truth, that infidel sees 
that the man whom the world stigmatizes as a reli- 
gious enthusiast is the only consistent Christian. If 
I believe that every sin tends to eternal perdition, 
can I be consistent in my belief, if I do not repress 
sin by every proper means within my power? If I 
believe that none but Christ can save so much as one 
single soul, can I be consistent in my belief, if I am 
not ready to spend and be spent in winning soula 
to Christ? On that maxim the Christian indeed 
will act ; and when that spirit is ascendant, we shall 
see far more done than has yet been attempted to 
soothe men's sorrows, to dry men's tears, and ease 
their aching hearts. 



36 

CHAPTER II. 

RELIGION IN OUR HOMES, 

It is a fatal and a paralysing mistake to suppose that 
the religion of Jesus is to be kept for certain days, 
or occasions, or places, and laid aside or neglected 
at other times. It is not meant to give solemnity 
merely to a few hours of the Sabbath, or a few deeds 
of the hand ; and while we can be satisfied with that 
view of religion, we have not begun to feel its power, 
to partake of its joy, or enter into its spirit. It 
would not be more unreasonable to suppose that the 
body needs the vital air to breathe only on certain 
occasions, or that the eye needs the light of heaven 
to see only at peculiar seasons, than that man can 
dispense at times with the truth of God as his guide, 
and monitor, and friend. If there be a moment at 
which man is not prone to go astray, then for that 
moment he may dispense with truth. If there be 
a single breath during which man is not dependent 
upon God, for that breath he may lay aside God's pure 
and holy word. 

But it is the dictate of reason, the moment it is 
illumined from on high, that the truth should take 
the control of the conscience, the understanding, and 
the heart, in all we find to do. It is to preside over 
thought, word, and deed. It is to direct us not 



OUR HOMES. 



37 



merely in actions which are strictly and properly 
religious, like praise, and prayer, and public wor- 
ship. It is to give a religious character to all that 
we attempt; and one great reason why religion is 
often despised is, that not a few of those who pro- 
fess to hold the truth forget its inghteous claims in 
their dealings with their fellow- men. 

There is a parent sitting by the couch where his 
first-born is stretched — a corpse. As he gazes on 
the pale features, more beautiful, he thinks, than 
ever now, because death has turned them into mar- 
ble, what consolation can the truth yield to him, if it 
has been his habit to confine its influence to a corner, 
a fragment of life, instead of regarding it as the sun- 
shine or the vital air of the soul ? 

There is a sister weeping by the grave of one who 
has just become a prey to corruption. Her heart 
is lonely, and stricken, and sore — she feels it would 
be a relief could it break. And what blessing can 
the truth, the very truth as it is in Jesus, yield to 
that wounded spirit, if it has been its habit to seclude 
and sequester religion, to keep it apart from the 
businc^;s of life, like some portion of our dress, meant 
only for solemn seasons or for holidays? 

There is another. The hand of death is on him. 
He cannot be blind to its approach. He must take 
home the warning,. *' Set thy house in order, for thou 
shalt die and not live." And of what avail to that 
man is the very truth which came from heaven, if 
it has been kept at a distance from the heart, like 



38 THE PROVINCE OF TRUTH. 

something ^hich we dislike or dread? Can a name, 
an echo, a phantom, a shadow, really avail that dying 
man's soul ? 

Or there is another stilL The Spirit of God has 
fastened conviction upon his conscience, and he feels 
now what it is to be a sinner. " What mnst I do to 
he saved?" — •' wretched man that I am. who shall 
deliver me 7'^ now embody the fears of his awakened 
spirit ; and to soothe that spirit, or hush these fears, 
what avails the solemn ceremonial or the decent form, 
while that is all? Can a form atone for guilt? Can 
a pageant cleanse the conscience? Can some occa- 
sional observance of a religious rite operate like a 
charm, and either silence the demands or uphold the 
purity of the law of God? Nay, '' miserable com- 
forters are they all." It is truth in the heart guiding 
to Him who is the truth itself, which alone can yield 
the troubled conscience peace. 

And, to name no more: There is a youth removed 
from the watchful guardianship of his father's home. 
The crowded city has become his busy abode, and 
its endless temptations must now be encountered. 
He must hear the grossness of the licentious, and 
endure the scoff of the godless. He must brave the 
assaults of those who have grown hardened in guilt. 
He must resist those who have trampled upon con- 
science, and forgotten that there is either a death 
before them, or a God to meet. And what will 
give that tempted youth the victory? An occasional 
glance at the Word of God? An occasional petition 



A SOUNDING BRASS. 39 

to his r.irone? An occasional visit to his house? To 
ask these questions is to answer them : That man 
consents to be deceived and undone who is willing 
to be only occasionally devout, occasionally seeking 
God, occasionally a Christian. 

We have tried, then, in the spirit of these remarks, 
to show that if the truth of God is to regulate the life 
of man, it must be planted in his heart. Afraid lest 
the services of the sanctuary and the lessons of the 
Sabbath be not sufficiently practical and precise, we 
are following men into the different spheres in which 
they move, there to apply the truth at once as a 
touchstone and a guide — a test to man's soul, and a 
light to man's path, A creed which only decorates 
the exterior cannot be that of the people of God. li 
it produce no beauty in the soul, no benefit in the 
life, it is a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. 

And our next topic is — Religion in our Homes. If 
it be planted in the heart by the Spirit of holiness, it 
wall soon spread outward and cover the life with its 
beauty. Like the widening circles on a pool whose 
smoothness a pebble has disturbed, the wave of truth 
flowing from the heart, fii.t touches those among 
w^hom we constantly move ; and in no sphere can 
the genuine power of godliness on the one haiul, or 
spurious pretences on the other, be more on ily or 
promptly discovered. A man is in God's eye just 
what he is in the bosom of his fiimily. 

Perhaps we can best and most simply introduce thin 
topic by referring to an example. To find it, we go 



40 THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL. 

straightway to the fountain-head, and fix attention 
on ''the father of the faithful." Among the things 
which signalized that remarkable man, was his strict 
regard to the fear of God in his home. " I know 
him," it is said by the Searcher of hearts ; '* I know 
him that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after Lim, and they shall keep the way of the 
liOrd to do justice and judgment." — Abraham was 
selected to introduce a new epoch in the mighty 
movements of Providence, a new stage in that grand 
procession which is carrying the generations of men 
forward to their eternal lot ; and one reason assigned 
for that selection is, that he would cultivate home- 
religion, or cause the fear of the Lord to circulate 
through his tents. Now every word that is employed 
to describe this epoch-making man deserves to be 
studied — it appears a very picture of the patriarch 
or the priest of home. He who blesses the habita- 
tions of the righteous, says, "7 know him.'' It is the 
Omniscient that speaks, and there can be neither hypo- 
crisy on the one hand, nor deception on the other. 
" I know him that he will command/^ There will 
be no betraying of the truth on his part, no yield- 
ing to any guide but one. There is a law, and 
Abraham will keep it. He is answerable to the Law- 
giver, and he will act on that conviction. 

And "I know him that he will command his 
children/^ Not blind affection; not that kind of 
indulgence which is the veriest cruelty; not that 
iisorder which renders the young the masters of the 



PERFECT LAW, AND LIBERTY. 



41 



old : Abraham will command his children. He and 
they are the subjects of a common Lord. His func- 
tions are purely executive. The Lord is our judge, 
the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; and 
parents and children alike are to be ruled by Him. 
This should equally prevent parental oppression on 
the one hand, and filial disobedience on the other, 
and when the laws which we obey are enacted by 
our Father who is in heaven, when they flow from 
Him whose heart is love, what but blessings can be 
the lot at once of him who administers and of those 
who obey them ? By the combined influence of 
authority and affection, Abraham was thus to rule 
his home. Like David, he was to walk wdthin his 
bouse with a perfect heart, and that is the mechod 
by which parents 

" May sun them In the light of happy faces." 

If +^"e Holy One has given us rules for the guidance 
of all, these rules form the standard from wliicli there 
can be no sinless swerving, and the first principles 
of holiness have yet to be learned where God's will 
is not thus paramount. 

And, moreover, his household as well as his chil- 
dren, were to be controlled by the patriarch. He is 
not one of those who forget that their dependents 
or domestics have souls, and therefore take no in- 
terest in them as immortal beings. He did not 
act as if there were one God for the master and 
another for the servant; one rule for the superior, 



42 THE ONE WILL SUPKEME. 

another for the inferior ; one way for the lordly, 
and another for the lowly. Nay, the father of the 
faithful, combining faith and works in their proper 
places, "will command his household;" will take the 
control of it, and see that everj'thing there is done 
decently and in order. There will be no tampering 
with a servant^ s conscience, and as little conniving 
at his transgressions. The ten commandments were 
not yet given ; but the spirit of them was a part of 
Abraham's believing nature, and he sought to have 
duty done wherever he had influence, alike by supe- 
riors, inferiors, and equals. In a \vord, like Corne- 
lius after him, he feared the Lord, with all his house. 
And farther : the rule, the standard at once for 
master and servant, is given, " They shall keep the 
way of the Lord.'' Every other path is that of the 
destroyer ; it tends to death, for '^ the curse of the 
Lord is in the house of the wicked.*' The question 
which we should ask in regard to our home religion 
is not, What is done by others ? What do men think ? 
What will the world tolerate ? What will be most 
conducive to present ease or peace ? but. What lias 
God said ? When that has been ascertained, every 
departure from it is just a w^andering into the way of 
sorrow. Neither parent nor child, nor any member 
of a household, need expect to prosper in any path 
except the way of the Lord ; and to anticipate pros- 
perity or peace in any other, just shows that reason 
is still eclipsed, that conscience is still seared or 
dormant, that the mind of God is not our mind, that 



THE EASTERN PRINCE. 43 

we are still doing as Adam did when he sought hap- 
piness in wandering from his Maker. 

Such, then, are the principles which lie at the 
foundation of all family rule; these would make our 
homes a Bethel, and our hearts a shrine. Wherever 
such fear of God reigns in the soul, accompanied with 
the love of Christ, there will be peace and holy joy; 
but every other principle will leave our hearts and 
homes unblest. Tacitus tells us that " many find 
it a harder task to govern a family than to rule a 
province ;'' and it may be so where God's law is not 
known or not regarded. But that law itself is abund- 
antly clear, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err therein. Every family that calls on 
the name of the Lord should spread out his Word 
before them, and ask, AVhat has God said? for that 
is the rule from which neither waywardness on the 
part of children, nor engrossment on the part of 
parents, can warrant our departure. — It is computed 
that ih3 household of Abraham could not contain less 
than a thousand souls. Living as he did in the 
rank of an Eastern prince, his retinue was such as 
we can scarcely understand ; and yet, concerning 
him and his household. Omniscience says : " Com- 
manded by Abraham, they will keep the way of 
the Lord.'' Like Joshua while placed at the head 
of a migrating nation, and burdened with the care of 
millions, his resolution was, " As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord." Keligion was to be 
planted in the heart of society, that is, in the sacred 



44 EDUCATIONAL INFIDELITY. 

circle of home ; and thence, like the .banyan tree, was 
to spread, and spread, till it had covered or encircled 
the whole. 

And here, as we pass along, it may serve as a 
warning to some, if we glance at that infidelity 
w^hich characterizes the schemes of some pretended 
friends of education and the young. They would 
divorce religion from education. They would let 
children grow^ up without any training in the fear of 
God. They would develope mind. They would im- 
part secular knov^^ledge ; but the knowledge of salva- 
tion, of sin, and of redemption from its woe, its bond- 
age, and defilement, they would not name. Passion 
may grow^ rampant ; the world may be ascendant in 
the heart, the mind, and all the powers of man, yet 
youth is to be left unchecked by any heavenly warn- 
ing, untaught by any heavenly lesson! Now, waiv- 
ing every other objection to this scheme, we say that it 
is unequivocally and utterly infidel; it should on that 
account be branded with the i^eprobation of all who 
love the rising race, on the one hand, who know their 
perils on the other, and who, moreover, feel assured 
that nothing but the truth of God can either make 
man savingly wise or keep him so. If God's favour 
be a dream, and man^s soul only organized matter, 
destined to pass away as other matter does, it is need- 
less to be very zealous for one scheme of training in 
preference to another. But if man be immortal, and if 
his immortality can be blessed, only by having his 
mind in harnion}^ with God's, then the training of 



THE SACRED CIRCLE. 45 

the young in the good way of the Lord is a matter ot 
solemn obligation. Man has no choice here. To 
neglect that way in training, is to arrogate a wisdom 
superior to God's, and the man who does that is 
perhaps blindly and unconsciously, but not the less 
certainly, evading God's truth and perpetuating the 
misery of man's soul. 

But we are too general. Ere we can plant and 
foster religion in our homes, we must descend into 
more minute details. 

Parents here demand the first place, and as the 
basis of all that can be addressed to them, we observe 
that the supreme, we might say the single maxim 
which should guide them in all they do, in regard to 
the religion of home, is suggested by the question, 
*' What is the way of the Lord?" Parents who do 
not walk in that way themselves, who find no plea- 
sure there, and feel under no constraint either to 
seek to enter upon it, or advance after they have 
entered, will feel no obligation to lead their children 
or their household there. That is the secret of our 
godless families, our prayerless homes, our nurseries 
of folly and of woe. The fountain which should send 
forth sweet water is poisoned. The tree which should 
bear grapes produces only wild berries, and society is 
at once crowded and corrupted by the ungodly chil- 
dren of ungodly parents. 

But wherever a parent has felt the value of u 
soul, and loves it — wherever he has found out the 
good way of the Lord, and tried to walk in it — his4 



46 THE ONLY RULE. 

guiding inquiry at every step will be, How does 
the God of all our f^imilies instruct us to act? 
What is his mind at any given point? That once 
ascertained, it becomes our only rule; and where 
it is not our only rule, religion in that home is not 
supreme — all besides is sin. '* The nurture and 
admonition of the Lord'^ — " The fear of the Lord, 
w^hich is the beginning of wisdom " — " The way in 
which they ought to go'^ — These, and similar portions 
of God's revealed mind, point at once to the sovereign 
rule. True, difficulties innumerable meet us in that 
way. The iniquity that is bound up in the heart 
of the young — the love of folly, and the hatred of 
wisdom — devotedneps to baubles — indifference to 
things eternal and divine, with all the array of evil 
influences which assail or ensnare the young in a 
world where God is unknown, dishonoured, or for- 
gotten, may augment the godly parent's difficulties. 
But difficulties are not the rule of duty. They 
are only a call to prayer, to dependence on the 
heavenly Teacher, and, in his strength, to steadfast 
opposition to all that is wrong, and affectionate encour- 
agement of all that is right and true. The Word of 
God is thus our only rule ; to consult another is to 
listen to the evil heart of unbelief. 

It has no doubt come to pass in our day, that that 
standard is set aside by many parents who dislike 
the holiness of the Bible, and would prefer some 
freer scope to sin than it will tolerate. They over- 
look the holy requirements of God, and there are 



I 
I 



THE piiayi:rless home. 47 

many homes where He is never worshipped. There 
are children who never heard their parents pray. 
There are domestics whose souls never drew forth one 
anxious thought from their employers. The religion 
of home is, in short, a discarded thing, and souls are 
trained in ungodliness by those who should watch 
over them as over their most precious possession. 
Now, it is needless to add that Christianity is exiled 
from such homes; the truth, the Spirit, the love of 
God, are not presiding there. There may be indivi- 
dual Christians under these roofs, w^ho sigh and cry 
for the reigning ungodliness ; or who, in some retired 
place, have set up an altar where God in Christ 
is worshipped, as has been done in a miserable 
cellar, in a home where no other place of prayer 
was allowed. Such homes, however, are not Chris- 
tian homes. The practice of Abraham is there re- 
versed : *' The way of the Lord'' is not observed; and 
when men wander from it, what can the end be but 
labour and sorrow ? 

But to a parent who really loves his children, and 
who would do as the great patriarch did, it would 
be an important boon, could a brief directory be sug- 
gested for Christianizing our homes, or rendering 
them places where prayer is wont to be made. How 
shall we subdue the spirit of the world, which is 
ever seeking to insinuate its deadening influence? 
How shall we be prepared to do all in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, in our homes ? These are questions 
which enter deeply int:) the well-being of society; 



48 THE WAY OF THE LORD. 

and yet no brief answer can be given applicable to 
every case. Every parent, impressed with a solemn 
sense of his own responsibility to God, must here 
seek daily grace for daily guidance, and make each 
difficulty, as it rises, a new errand to the throne. 
Thus only will the religion of the Redeemer preside 
in our homes, and fit us for " the house of the Lord 
for ever." Perhaps the only universal rule that 
could be given is this : In regard to any action, any 
pleasure, any practice in our homes, let the question 
be asked, with the Bible open before us, " Is this 
the way of the Lord ? Is it thus that I can train 
my children in the way in which they ought to go ?" 
The answer to that, honestly sought and honestly 
found in prayer to God for light and guidance, would 
detect many an unholy practice, or repress many an 
unholy plan. It would make the religion of our 
homes the religion of Jesus, of purity and peace — the 
guide who came from heaven to lead us to its glory 
and its God. It would infuse a right spirit into our 
catechisings and all our details, and end in raising 
up godly households in the land. 

Blind parental affection ranks among the greatest 
obstructions to the religion of home. It p>:ompts 
indulgences which should be at once put away, and 
prevents correction where correction is an ordinance 
of God. It seems to turn the hearts of parents to 
their children according to the promise, but it is, in 
truth, like the tender mercies of the wicked, only 
cruelty in disguise. 



INORDINATE AFFECTION. 49 

And to correct this, let us glance at an incident 
in the life of Him whom no one will suspect of the 
want of affection the most profound, for " He loved 
us, and gave himself for us." — The hour of the 
power of darkness was drawing on. His enemies 
were gradually narrowing the circle around him, 
and preparing to spring on him at last, as the vic- 
tim of their hatred unto death. He had intimated 
to those around him what was about to happen ; and 
Peter, ever resolute, impulsive, and loving, could ill 
brook the tidings. " Be it far from thee, Lord : this 
shall not be unto thee," were theapostle^s ardent and 
affectionate words ; and how did the Saviour regard 
them ? Did he welcome them as a solace to his 
troubles ? Nay, his instant rejoinder was, '' Get thee 
behind me, Satan." In other words, all- affectionate 
as the apostle's remonstrance seems to our minds, 
it was opposed to the mind and will of God, and 
whatever bore that character, was offensive to the 
Redeemer's holy soul — offensive as Satan himself. 
Without regarding Peter's love, then — without treat- 
ing that as love at all which opposed the appoint- 
ments of Jehovah, Jesus addressed the apostle just 
as he had once before addressed the tempter him- 
self. ^' Get thee hence, Satan," wei'e his words 
when asked to fall down and worship Satan ; "Get 
thee behind me, Satan,'' was his equally emphatic 
language to his own apostle, when he pointed to a 
path which was different from '^ the way of the Lord." 

And that is written for our instruction. Human 



50 ELI. 

affection is only an angel of darkness in the garb of 
an angel of light, when it would counsel ns to walk 
in any path bnt God's. Parents may indulge their 
natural affection at the expense of His holy law. 
They may concede what He has forbidden, or with- 
hold what He appoints, but that was never yet 
done without danger of the second death ; and parents 
not a few have helped to bring their own gray hairs 
in sorrow to the grave, by such concessions to their 
offspring. The father or the mother who represses the 
young soul, and lays burdens upon it which the 
Word of God does not warrant, ranks among the 
worst of tyrants or oppressors. The father or the 
mother who yields where God's Word opposes, or 
cheers the young in ways which our Father who is 
in heaven has forbidden, is cruel to their soul. 

But we are not left merely to infer the results of 
a blindfold affection on the part of parents ; these 
results have been made the subject of an affecting 
revelation ; and to show how much depends upon 
the right discharge of parental duty, we have line 
upon line and precept upon precept. The case of 
Eli, for example, a man who was at once a priest 
and a ruler in Israel, is recorded for our warn- 
ing. His sons did wickedly, and he restrained them 
not. From indolence of nature, or that phase of 
affection which leads to connivance at sin or pam- 
pering the inborn evil of the heart, Eli did not re- 
press iniquity ; he suffered it to grow, even in the 
house of God, without any effectual restraint ; and 



WOE. 51 

what was the result ? It ranks among the most 
terrific of all that is contained in the Word of God. 
*' Behold I will do a thing in Israel, at which both 
the ears of the hearer shall tingle" — ^^ When I begin 
I will also make an end, for I have told Eli that I 
will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which 
he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, 
and he restrained them not." Here is both the sin 
and the result. The sin — parental neglect, from 
blindfold affection, or whatsoever cause. The result 
' — an amount of iniquity which was not to be forgiven 
for ever. Parent and child were to suffer, and neither 
sacrifice nor offering was found for that transgression 
" for ever." Eli was a believer, though compassed 
about with infirmities ; but there is only one other 
case in all the Word of God where we learn so plainly 
the eternal portion of any individual soul, as we are 
told the doom of the godless sons of Eli. 

In contrast, then, with the conduct of Abraham, 
that of Eli brings to parents a lesson as distinct as 
if it were spoken in thunder, or written in light on 
the face of the heavens. *'The way of the Lord" 
was the path chosen by the one. He walked there, 
and led his children with him ; and like the palm-tree. 
in its fertility, that man was blessed and made a bless- 
ing. But evil without effectual restraint was what 
Eli tolerated. '' Tlie way of the Lord" was forsaken 
partially by himself, and wholly by his sons ; and 
woe, beyond what tongue can tell, was therefore Eli's 
lot while he sojourned here below. 




52 THE MODEL. 

Again, in the very constitution of our being the 
Almighty Maker of heaven and earth has inserted a 
provision for securing parental ascendency and aiding 
parental duty. Without dwelling at present or at large 
on the power of parental affection, responded to by filial 
love, let us call to mind the fact that the Saviour made 
a little child his model disciple : " He called a little 
child unto him, and set him in the midst" of his at- 
tendants, and made that child the text of one of his 
marvellous discourses. Now, consider how it is with 
the minds of children, that parents may be encour- 
aged amid what is often irksome, namely, making our 
homes so iivany nurseries for heaven. 

A little child, then, was the Saviour's model dis- 
ciple ; and w^hat are the characteristics of childhood ? 
It is I'eady to associate with any who are friendly to 
it. Regardless of external distinctions, it will conde- 
scend to men even of the low^est estate. — And is it not 
thus that they who are born of God should at all 
times act? Instead of overbearing arrogance, or 
selfish endeavours to outstrip or supplant, does not 
the truth as it is in Jesus teach us to do as a little 
child Instinctively does, to condescend to men of low 
estate? Are we not taught to esteem others better 
than ourselves, to love as brethren, to be pitiful and 
courteous ? 

Farther, we commonly find a little child trans- 
parently guileless. Infancy is proverbially artless ; 
it is reserved for advancing years to develope deceit, 
or mature the power to be false. — And is it not ever so 



SIMPLK FAITH. 53 

with those who uare taght of God? They should 
be pre-eminently men in whom there is no guile, 
whose word is truth, and whose wa^^s are upright- 
ness. Who has not seen the flushed cheek, the 
quivering lip, and the downcast eye of youth, when 
first beginning to deceiv^e ? A similar confusion 
w^ould be produced in the conscience of him who 
is born from above, were he to yield himself up to 
tlie guidance of lies. The little child is here again 
a model. 

Or farther: Mark how devoid of care the infantine 
are. They repose without forethought or fear upon 
those whom they love — literally and absolutely, 
they take no thought for to-morrow. Borne up by 
the arms of affection, and neither doing nor dreading 
evil, they are kept in perfect tranquillity : every want 
is attended to, nay, every want is anticipated. A 
wisdom beyond what the young can fancy, and a 
love beyond what they can fathom, are engaged on 
their behalf, and resting upon these, the helpless 
and the feeble are safe amid a thousand dangers. 

Now, is not that a model to be copied by all who 
know God's name, and put their trust in Him? Are 
we not told that only the Gentiles are anxious and 
fretful? Is it not announced as a general maxim, to 
which there can be no exceptive case, " Sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof?" And is not one 
of the most exquisite proofs of a particular providence 
that ever gladdened the heart of man, furnished by the 
Saviour with the flowers of the field and the birds 



54 ALFRED THE GKEAT. 

of the air for his text, just meant to produce a child- 
like confidence in our heavenly Father?* 

And once again : Are not children proverbial for 
their dependence on a parent's word? Do they not 
place the most unquestioning confidence in the infor- 
mation of those whom they love? Unless the parent 
be detected as a de- siver, or unless the child be 
perverted by the vicious example of those who 
should train it in the truth, not a doubt is felt re- 
garding the word of those with whom infancy asso- 
ciates. And is not that a perfect model of the crust 
w^e should repose in the word of our Father who is 
in heaven? Are we not both reproved and instructed 
by such little children, as to implicitly confiding in the 
promises of the unchanging One?-}- 

Now, these things may well encourage parents 
in the training of the young. There is already a 
groundwork prepared. They have materials upon 
which to operate; and though all is vain without the 
teaching of the Spirit of God, yet with that and the 
use of means, the hope may be cherished that a race 
will be trained to serve the Lord when their fathers 
are no more. 

Nor is history devoid of exam. pies tending to 
enforce the duty of godly training. Of all the 
names which embellish the history of our island, 
that of Alfred the Great stands among the foremost. 
Equally remarkable for his genius, his wisdom, his 

♦ Matt vi. 25-33. 

t See the Domestic Constitution, by Christopher Anderson. 



II 



A KOYAL CflT^lSTIAN. 5S 

g-odliness, and his trials, we might find in his single 
case enough to encourage parental painstaking or 
rebuke parental neglect. Hear how this monarch 
speaks : " To thee, God, I call and epeak. Hear, 
hear me. Lord 1 for thou art my God and my Lord, 
my Father and my Creator, my ruler and my hope, 
my wealth and my honour, my house, my country, 
ray salvation, and my life! Hear, hear me, Lord! 
Few of thy servants comprehend thee. But thee 
alone I love indeed, above all other things : Thee I 
seek: Thee I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. 
Under thy power I desire to abide, for thou alone 
art the Sovereign of all. I pray thee to command 
me as thou wilt.'* 

Now, by what process was this youth enabled 
to make such acquu-ements in godliness as that 
prayer betokens? It was by a device of his mother, 
who allured him into paths where he learned that 
truth which he has so beautifully embodied. Her 
wise and loving heart struck upon a plan which 
proved the turning-point in Alfred's history. It 
gave or it confirmed that bent of his mind which 
made him what he was — which led to the enacting 
of some of the laws which still signalize England 
among the nations, as well as prompted this memo- 
rable address to his son and successor Edward, on 
Alfred's dying bed: *' We must now part," the 
sinking monarch said; "1 go to another world, and 
thou fthalt be left alone in all my wealth. I pray 
thee (for tliou art my dear child) strive to be a father 



56 A mother's power. 

and a lord to thy people. Be tliou the children's 
father and the widow's friend. Comfort thou the 
poor, and shelter the weak; and with all thy might, 
right what is wrong. And, son, govern thyself by 
law. Then shall the Lord love thee, and God, above 
all things, shall be thy reward. Call thou upon him 
to advise thee in all thy need, and so shall he help 
thee the better to compass what thou wouldest." 
Now that, we repeat, and similar examples may well 
stimulate parental diligence and animate parental 
hope. In a barbarous age, amid rude and martial 
men, with superstition seeking to efface all that was 
divine, and ignorance combining its power to help 
superstition to accomplish that object, Alfred rose 
above every obstacle, and stamped impressions upon 
his country which all time cannot efface. — What can 
Christian principle in the hands of a godly mother 
not achieve? What forms may not be impressed 
upon the molten lead? 

On this subject, however, there is a difficulty which 
sometimes meets us, at which it may be instructive 
to glance. On the one hand, we read, *' Train up 
a child in the way he should go, and when he is old 
he will not depart from it," but on the other, it is too 
well known that even children who have been trained 
by godly parents often go astray. They make haste 
to abandon the narrow path as soon as they dare, and 
plunge into sin as if they were determined to show 
how boldly they can trample upon all that is sacred 
or constraining. How many a parent's heart is at 



A DIFFICULTY : 57 

this moment aching, or how many have gone down in 
sorrow to the grave, lamenting the iniquity of those 
whom they had tried to train, or for whom they had 
w^atched and prayed! Ten thousand mothers have 
had Monica^s trials, without living to share her joy, 
and the homes which should have been like temples 
of religion, have become the abodes of woe. 

Now, how is this apparent contradiction to be ex- 
plained ? The Scriptures say, " Train up a child in 
the way that he should go,'' and add the assurance, 
''When he is old, he will not depart from it;" but, 
in opposition to that, we see some of the children of 
godly parents plunging into sin; and how do we ex- 
plain the seeming contradiction ? 

We explain it just by stating the truth. The child 
who has gone astray never was in the right way : 
he refused so much as to enter it. His training was 
a burden and an oftence. Fear might compel him 
to comply with a form for a season. The parent 
took pains ; he corrected the child, perhaps through 
tears ; he warned ; he prayed ; but the heart was never 
won to God. The iniquity which was bound up in 
the heart of that child resisted every appliance. Sin 
was still loved. It was turned like a sweet morsel 
under the tongue. Holiness continued to be disliked. 
The constraints of a Christian home were like fet- 
ters to that child ; and, when his pent-up iniquity 
broke out at last, it was only the open display of 
what had always been latently ruling. In a Avord, 
he had not been trained, nay, he had resisted 



58 



ITS EXPLANATION. 



every attempt to train him, in the way in which 
he ought to go. He might be the inmate of a Chris- 
tian home ; but he never had a Christian heart ; 
the truth of God v*^as repelled; the Spirit of Hod 
was quenched; and the explanation is : — " They went 
out from us, but they were not of us ; for if they had 
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with 
us : but they went out, that they nnght be made 
manifest that they were not all of us." 

On the other hand, however, does some child re- 
ceive the truth into the heart? Does sin become an 
offence? Is the Word of God loved? Is the salva- 
tion of God sought ? Then that child is trained in the 
way in which he ought to go. There may yet come 
an eclipse of faith. Temptation may for a season 
prevail, and the world may appear to have regained 
the mastery. But if the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord has been welcomed into the heart, as the 
Spirit imparts his blessing, the effect produced will 
never fade utterly away. Out of the mouth of such 
a one God will perfect praise ; and while some com- 
panion beside him is growing up in wickedness, or 
casting the Word of God behind his back — searing 
tlie conscience, hardening the heart, and ruining the 
soul — the other is growing up to the stature of a 
perfect man in Christ. Like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water, he bears his fruit in his season, and 
all he does shall prosper. 

But further, the subject of parental training sug- 
gests a question which occasions not a little per- 



THE WORLD— ITS ANTIDOTE, 59 

plexity to some Christian minds. We refer to the 
line which separates the unquestionably worldly 
from the decidedly Christian, in the training of the 
young. There are practices on which every Chris- 
tian parent must frown, and from which he must 
recoil, if he would not promote the ruin, by foster- 
ing the worldly-mindedness, of his children; but 
there are intermediate practices, regarding which he 
may find it more difficult to decide, and upon this 
point we quote the authority of one whose weighty 
words all who would not conspire with the world 
against their own children, should very gravely 
ponder. Dr. Chalmers says : ''In the face of every 
hazard to the worldly interests of his offspring, will a 
Christian parent bring them up in the strict nurture 
and adujonition of the Lord; and he will loudly pro- 
test against iniquity, in all its degrees and in all its 
modifications ; and while the power of discipline re- 
mains with him, w^ill it ever be exerted on the side of 
pure, faultless, undeviating obedience ; and he will to- 
lerate no exception whatever ; and he will brave all 
that looks formidable in singularity, and all that lookj 
menacing in separation from the custom and counte- 
nance of the world ; and feeling that his main concern 
is to secure for himself and for his family a place in 
the city which hath foundations, will he spurn all the 
maxims and all the plausibilities of a contagious 
neighbourhood away from him."^* 



* Discourses on the application of Cln-istianity to the Commercial and 
Ordinary attairs of life.— Discourse VI. 



60 FAMILY WORSHIP. 

But it is more than time that we should proceed 
to refer to the duties of Children. Had it been our 
object to submit detailed directions for a Christian 
home, we must have spoken at length of the car- 
dinal duty of family worship, without which, it 
should never be disguised for a moment, our 
homes cannot be Christian. The household in 
which God is not worshipped is like a ship at sea 
without a pilot or a helm, while the tempest is 
rising and threatening to rage. However mnjestic 
the vessel or costly the cargo, she is at the mercy 
of the first rock — it may be, the very first wave. 
*' Him that honoureth God^ God will honour; but 
he that despiseth God shall be lightly esteemed ;'' 
and the neglect of this honour is, beyond all contro- 
versy, one cause of the degeneracy which is now so 
apparent in many spheres. 

Or we must have told that parents, and very spe- 
cially that mothers, should deal v>'ith their children 
from time to time, as only Christian mothers can do, 
regarding the state of the soul, according to the mea- 
sure of the young capacity. To stimulate them to 
that duty, we might quote or enforce the words of a 
man much honoured of God : *^ Ah, could you see 
your children standing at the bar of Christ, uncon- 
verted, through an affectionate mother's neglect of 
their souls, how w^ould the scene rend your hearts 
with anguish I"* 

* See a remarkable little volume, " Memoirs of Harlan Page.'* 



SABBATH SCHOOLS THEIR USE AND ABUSE. 61 

Or we must have dwelt on the fact that no parent 
is at liberty to devolve the Christian training of his 
child upon another. It is the primary law of God 
over all, that the parent should see to the child's 
religious training ; and the home in which that is 
neglected, is one where a large portion of the law 
of God ^s ignored. Sabbath -schools have been 
blessed beyond what can be told, to remedy existing 
evils — to roll back, or at least repress, the rising 
tide of iniquity ; and multitudes will rejoice for 
ever over such institutions. In the state of degra- 
dation into vv^hich multitudes have sunk, they have 
long been our only hope — but they belong to a 
diseased state of society. They are for those who 
would otherwise be neglected or outcast, and can 
never supersede the obligation imposed upon all 
parents, without exception, to bring up their chil- 
dren in the nurture of the Lord. 

Or, in providing for the Christianizing of men's 
homes, we might have spoken on the subject of cor- 
rection, and told that, in spite of modern theories to 
the contrary, that is an ordinance of God — though 
never to be employed till all else has failed, and to 
be administered, when administered at all, through 
tears, as giving more pain to the parent who corrects, 
than to the child who is corrected. 

Or, in adverting to the ascendency of Christian 
principle in our homes, we might mention the need 
of care on the part of parents, lest they ccanmit their 
children to paths, in regard to this world's business, 



62 CHILDREN THEIR ONLY RULE. 

where a very miracle of grace is needed to save 
them from destruction. AYho can doubt, that in 
selecting the school \Yhere their offspring shall be 
trained, or the master whom they shall serve, or the 
profession which they shall follow, many a parent 
has sacrificed his child to the god of this world ? 
This is a sore evil; and in an age like ours, when 
even the souls of men are made a matter of mer- 
chandise, a Christian parent will beware lest he 
expose inexperienced youth amid scenes where 
everlasting destruction may await the soul. 

But these we only name, and now offer one sug- 
gestion to the young themselves : *' Children, obey 
your parents in the Lord ;" or, '' Children, obey 
your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing 
unto the Lord." — These are the Scriptural injunc- 
tions, from which there can be no swerving with- 
out committing sin. Did parents issue some com- 
mand contrary to the AYord of God, then a Chris- 
tian child must decline obeying it, for that child is 
bound by a higher allegiance to God ; but in all 
common cases, the parent is in God's place to the 
child. The parent's will is law — a law which cannot 
be broken without guilt. That law, indeed, is to be 
administered w^ith the sceptre of love, and not with a 
rod of iron ; and while children are to obey their 
parents, ^'parents are not to provoke their children to 
wrath.'' But still, the unvarying inile is — the parent's 
A^ill is supreme ; and wherever filial affection reigns, 
that law^ will be sacredly observed, because it is 



MASTER AND SERVANT. 63 

founded on the authority of the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. It is guarded on the one hand 
by the promise of blessings to the obedient, and on 
the other by such words as these : " He that trou- 
bleth his own house shall inherit the wind/' Insub- 
ordination here is the root of wrath and woe. 

Next to the relation of husband and wife, and 
parent and child, stands that of master and servant ; 
and here also our homes should be presided over by 
Christian principle. On the one hand, there is obedi- 
ence due even to the froward ; and on the other, there 
is care and kindness — kindness to the souls of our 
domestics, as well as in other respects. In our mer- 
cenary and utilitarian age, W'hen human beings are 
often regarded by hard-m.inded men, onl}^ as so much 
living machinery, and when the chief question con- 
cerning them is too often the same as that which is 
employed concerning the beasts that perish — How 
can their flesh and blood be turned to most profitable 
account ? — this relation is often formed or conducted 
upon principles the reverse of Christian. The em- 
ployed are too ready to prey upon the employer, 
while he treats them with lordly indifference or with 
heartless disregard. They are thus often arrayed 
against each other, like natural enemies, instead of 
being united, as mutually dependent. 

But a better day has dawned, in which the bonds 
which unite master and servant are better under- 
stood. If servants are to act like those who servo 
the Lord Christ, and to do their duty heartily as unto 



b4 "not at home " A LIE. 

the Lord, masters are to beware lest their depend- 
ants be hindered in that service by selfish exaction or 
inconsiderate unkindness. This relation is not a 
merely mercenary one — it is degraded when viewed 
only in that light. It has moral elements mixed up 
with it now, as in the days of old, when Abraham 
commanded his household, as well as his children, to 
" keep the way of the Lord.'' The soul as well as 
the body, eternity as well as time, are to be kept in 
view in this as in every relation ; and never was 
that principle outraged without eventual iniury to all. 
It is much to oppress the hireling, or rob him of his 
wages ; but it is more to defraud the soul of its due. 
It is much to occasion pain by haughtiness or harsh- 
ness ; but it is more to coerce or to sullv the con- 
science ; and the Bible is not the lamp of that home 
where souls are thus defrauded. 

And who can ever compute the guilt of those who 
tamper with a servant's truthfulness, and train her 
to falsehood, to screen them from intruders ? That 
form of sin is perhaps now well-nigh banished to 
the highest ranks, and to those who mimic their ex- 
ample ; but we can picture no more certain process 
for defacing all that is pure and lovely in a soul, than 
the practice to whicli we advert. And when such a 
habi!: as the utterance of a falsehood, for any pur- 
pose, is imposed upon a servant, that servant should 
resolutely reject it. There may come the storm of 
the cruel seducer's anger ; but better that than the 
tempest of the Judge's wrath. There may come home- 



CHRISTIAN HOMES 65 

lessness or poverty ; but better that than a polluted 
conscience and a shipwrecked faith. Stanch Chris- 
tian principle never yet inflicted a lasting injury 
upon any one, and he need not be afraid for what 
man can do, who has learned humbly, but firmly, 
to say, *' It is a very small thing that I should be 
judged of you, or of man's judgment. . . . He 
that judgeth me is the Lord."* 

Nor let us fail to remark, that it was for the guid- 
ance of servants that these memorable words w^ere 
inspired : " Exhort servants to be obedient to their 
masters, and to please them wxll in all things ; not 
answering again ; not purloining, but showing all 
good fidelity ;" and mark the lofty motive, ^' that 
they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in 
all things.'' That is surely truest dignity, and 
again w^e say. How would domestic life be sweetened ; 
how would many of our sins be compelled to hide 
their head ashamed ; how would the lowly be ex- 
alted; how would the general aspect of society be 
changed— were our homes Christian homes in this 
respect ! Were masters in their spheres, and ser- 
vants in theirs, alike setting the Lord before them, 
alike serving him, alike ^' walking in the way of 
the Lord" — that one maxim steadfastly obeyed, 
would revolutionize many a home for good. No 
petty invasion then of another's rights on the one 
hand ; no haughty neglect upon the other ; — all 

* 1 Cor. iv. 3. 4. 



66 THE TYPE OF HEAVEN. 

would be well-ordered, for all would be according 
to tbe mind of God/^ 

And with this all before us, let fathers, mothers, 
and children — -let masters and servants, or the em- 
ployer and the employed, decide — Are they realizing 
their responsibility ? Are they seeking the eternal 
good of those with whom they are connected? Are 
they enduring no wicked thing before their eyes, 
according to the Word of the Eternal? We know 
that a parent, for example, cannot impart grace to his 
child ; nay, some of those whom parents most fondly 
cherish, may turn at last and rend them. But may 
not the hope be cherished that the blessing of God 
upon the use of means will turn the hearts of the 
children to the parents ; or better still, to the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ? May not 
parents hope, that in answer to their prayers and 
their pains, God will guide the young to Him whom 
these parents fear, to the Saviour whom they love, 
and the heavenly abode of which a Christian home 
on earth is the vestibule or type ? Let parents pray 
for that result ; let them labour for it ; let them hope 



* "It may look to some a degradation of the pulpit, when the household 
servant is told to make her fiiTu stand a,r;ainst the temptation of open 
doors and secret opportunities ; or when the C(mfidential agrent is told to 
resist tlie slightest inclination to any unseen freedom with tlic property of 
his employers, or to any discoverable excess in the charges of his manage- 
ment: or when the receiver of a humble payment is told that the tribute 
which is due on every written acknowledgment ought faithfully to be met, 
and not tictitiously to be evaded. This is not robbing relic ion of its sacred- 
uess, but spreading its sacredness over the face of society. It is evange- 
lizing human life by impregnating its minutest transactions with the Spirit 
of the Gospel. "--Dr. Cjialmeus. 



THE HAPPY HOME. 67 

for it ; and the Spirit of God may thus honour them 
to win the young to Christ. But how terrific the por- 
tion of the parent who shall meet his child in the pre- 
sence of God, when that child has perished through 
the ppxent's sin ! How blessed, how double the hea- 
ven, which is the home at once of parent and of 
child! 

Would men then be happy ? Let the love of 
Christ reign in their homes. Let them yield to 
that heavenly power which alone can quell tumul- 
tuous passion, or charm away the unhallowed effects 
of sin from scenes, which should ever be sacred to 
holiness and peace. That love should well up in the 
Christian soul like a stream in the desert, refreshing 
all, and turning sterility into greenness. Now, is 
that the case? Has the truth been lodged in the 
heart? Is the mind of God, the law of the Lord, 
our guide? Then the cheerfulness of heavenly peace 
will glance through oar abodes. They may be only a 
straw- built shed, or they may be the halls of the 
princely ; but v\^hei'\iver the love of Jesus reigns, 
there is peaoj with God, joy in God, and prepara- 
tion to be ijii c7Cr with Him, 



68 



CHAPTER III. 



RELIGION IN THE WORKSHOP. 



There is no error in religion more common or more 
deadly, than to put the means for the end. So rarely 
does man regard aright the great object of the soul's 
pm'suit, that he is ready to repose supinely upon some- 
thing done, \Yithout ever solemnly inquiring whether 
he has reached the right result by doing it, or only 
been deceived by a semblance and a form. — We read 
the Word of God, and think that it can accomplish 
what only He of whom it tells can achieve. We 
hold certain doctrines, and because we hold them 
firmly, we hasten to the conclusion that we actually 
possess the blessings which these doctrines reveal 
or imply. Or finally, the intellect of some is filled 
with truth in its loftiest forms ; but there it lies, 
exercising no influence upon the life. It quiets the 
conscience, but it does not sanctify the soul ; and 
the anomaly of a spiritual creed side by side with 
a carnal life is thus frequently found among men — 
the worst of all heresies, the most deadly of all 
deceptions, a repetition of Chorazin and Bethsaida. 

Now, it can never be made too plain that reve- 
lation, with all that is glorious in it, is only a means 
to an end. Even the death of Christ, solitary as it 
stands in its moral grandeur, among the events of the 
universe, was onlv a liicans — the end was God^s 



THE CHIEF END OF REVEL/VTIO^. G9 

glory in man^s holiness. To bring a clean thing out 
of an unclean ; to transmute enmity against God into 
love to him, or wounds and bruises and noisome 
sores into the beauty of holiness — behold the grand 
result aimed at alike in the life and the death of 
the Son of God. By dying he did accomplish other 
results, and the inflaonce of that death is felt to the 
utmost verge of creation, as we know it is felt 
among the angels on high. But still it is the 
grand result we should ever aim at, and that is, 
deliverance from sin in its condemnation, its pol- 
lution, and its power : " This is the will of God, 
even our holiness/' 

Now, this simple truth may serve as a guide or an 
ally in every sphere of life, but specially so in that 
sphere which we are now to contemplate, or the Bible 
in the Workshop. And an incident recorded in the 
Christian Scriptures will at once shed light upon the 
subject. On more than one occasion the apostle 
Paul had to work with his hands to earn his daily 
bread.* Though the care of all the churches was 
upon him ; though the enmity of the prejudiced, and 
the persecution of those who had the power, tried to 
bear him down, he was yet amid it all, a man of 
handicraft, and hard labour — he could sit down with 
Aquila in his workshop, and there engage in manual 
labour for his livelihood, with all the zeal of his 
noble and indomitable nature. lie at least was not 

* Acts xviii. 3 ; xx. 34. 1 Cor. iv. 12. 1 Thess. il. 9. 



70 THE CriniSTIAN WORKMAN. 

one of those who think that idleness and indolence 
can dignify man's position. He was not one of 
those who would deem themselves degraded by being 
useful. He knew that man is born under a decree 
to work. He therefore wrought ; and just as this 
man of God, when it was his duty, put forth all the 
powers of his intellect and soul in reasoning before 
Festus, or Felix, or King Agrippa, did he put forth 
the powers of his body in making tents in the work- 
shop of his friend at Corinth. Enough for Paul, if 
he was where the Lord wished him to be, or engaged 
in A. li'dt the Lord gave him to do ; and without one 
feeling either of degradation or of discontent, he bore 
the toils of the body as well as exerted the activities of 
the mind ; he both taught and practised the lesson, 
" If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.'^ 
He felt that every man must be a worker, either with 
mind, or body, or both. The last was his alter- 
native ; and we know that in some cases the night 
was added to the day, ere he could complete his 
allotted task. Sinew, and muscle, and bone, in Paul's 
case, were dedicated to the service of God, as well as 
a mental power which could not be gainsaid, except 
by the bigot's ever ready argument — the dungeon, 
the chain, or death. 

With this high model in view, then, let us now 
enter a workshop, and accost some of those who are 
there. Our object is to show how the Bible should 
preside among them, to protect the character from 
Dollut.ion — the soul from peril. Remembering that 



A WORKSHOP — 71 

Christian worth does not depend on lofty birth or 
brilliant powers, but on a heart right with God, and 
his long-lost image restored to the soul, consider 
how that image may become more and more vivid, 
if it be indeed stamped on us by the Spirit. 

And, first, not a few of those with whom we asso- 
ciate in the workshop, are snares to the soul of the 
very direst kind. We find that infidelity which is 
often the result of utter ignorance, there rampant 
and rife. We often see vice rioting in the life, 
and shutting the heart against the truth. A soul 
in which religion is felt and loved, will hear what 
it deems sacred blasphemed, and in self-defence, it 
may be constrained to contend for the faith once 
delivered to the saints. Some of those who are thus 
tried can tell of the mental anguish to which they are 
exposed — of the snares which are laid for them on 
the right hand and on the left — the heroism which is 
needed to contend, perhaps single-handed, against a 
crowd of gainsayers, who know of no pleasure but 
the pleasures of sin, or care for no truth but such 
as relates to gross and material things. As the 
body is oppressed and dies amid mephitic vapourj*^ 
the soul grows sick and like to die amid scenes 
like these. It has to maintain a constant struggle 
for existence, as the natives of some portions of 
India maintain a constant warfare with the inliabit- 
ants of the jungle — the boa, the lion, or the tiger. 
Men long neglected by those who should liave con- 
sulted for their better interests ; men long viewed 



72 



ITS OCCUPANTS. 



as only so much animal machinery, to be used 
as long as it can drudge, and then heartlessly cast 
aside ; men long treated as if they had neither 
souls to save, nor an eternity to provide for, have 
too often sunk so far that they threaten to take revenge 
upon society, by trampling out every vestige of truth 
that can be found in the places of their exhaustion 
and toil. 

Now, amid perils like these, surely the man who 
cares for his soul has just the more need to cleave 
close to the only power which can give him the 
victory — and that power is Christ. Every ungodly 
gainsayer should be to that man an object of pity, 
like that of the Redeemer to our fallen world. 
Every blasphemer, every infidel, every man who has 
given himself up to the slavery of passion, and de- 
throned at once his reason and his God, should be an 
object of tender compassion to the soul of the Chris- 
tian beside him. While sporting with their own 
ruin, such men should be like another, and another, 
and another call to all who know the truth, to show 
by their life at least, what a Christian, or what 
Christianity is — how true it is that 



" We can make our lives sublime^ 
And departing, leave 'behincl us 
Footprints on the sands of time;** 



and the following counsels may help some earnest 
Bpii-it in that arduous work. 

The most godly occupant of a workshop will be 
the least surprised to hear us say, Next to the Bible, 



THE SABBATH-DAY. 73 

prize the Sabbath-day, and let no man rob you of 
its sacred rest. You will thus find it a tower of 
strength to the soul. 

While we look around us, we everywhere see the 
blessed results of the Sabbath rest w^ien properly 
employed, the woeful consequences of its sacred hours 
encroached on, whether by the drudgery of toil or 
the debasement of licentiousness. See that home 
w^here domestic comfort dwells, where well-ordered 
decorum reigns, and where the parent and the child 
have alike their part assigned to them from day to 
day. Be sure that the Sabbath is there observed; 
the very peace which prevails around you in that 
abode, is a portion of the Sabbath itself spread over 
the week.* 

But see that other home where squalid wretched- 
ness, perhaps unholy riot, reigns. See cbildren ne- 
glected, see character lost, see poverty bringing woe in 
its train — a woe which is gradually rising like an en- 
gulphing tide upon the inmates, till at last they are 
steeped to ihe lip in misery. See a wife worse than 
widowed amid the brutalities of that home; or, more 
degrading still, see her uniting with her guihy part- 
ner in godless revelry, till, like the meeting of fires, 
the two together w^aste and consume every vestige of 



* " He lives in a cotta;?e, and yet he is a king and a priest unto God. 
He is fixed for life to the ignoble drudfft ry of a workman, and yet lie is 
on the full march to a blissful immortality. He is a child in the mysteries 
of science, but familiar with greater mysteries. That preaching of the 
rross which is foolishness to others, he feels to be the power of God and 
the wisdom of God." — DJ{. Cualmkks. 



74 

wliat IS pure, and lovely, and of good report. Xow, 
while you gaze upon that scene, be sure that the 
sacred hours of the Sabbath are dishallowed there ; 
they are squandered in licentiousness, and perverted 
into the means of ruin. In brief, the Sabbath is there 
trodden under foot. The ungodliness of the week 
grows deeper and darker on the Lord's own day, 
because the abuse of the best things tunis them into 
the worst ; and accumulated crime, like a swollen 
nver. sweeps the inmates at last, some to prison, 
some to an hospital, some to exile, some to death. 

And these, and a thousand similar cases, warn us 
in the workshop to prize the day of rest. It frees 
the sons and daughters of toil for a little from 
the burdens of earth. It braces their mind for the 
stniggle with sin throughout the week. It enables 
them to clothe themselves with the armour of right- 
eousness on the right hand and on the left. It 
affords an opportunity for anchoring the soul to the 
Rock of Ages. If employed as it ought to be, that 
day, which is not ours, but the Lord's, who claims a 
seventh portion of our time as peeuliarly his own, will 
arm the mind for meekly but resolutely putting away 
at once the wiles and the assaults of the godless. 
" I know in whom I have believed," may be the 
reply of the godly artizan to all the gainsayers ; and 
he may thus proceed upon his way as a believer, as 
unmoved either by the scorn or the assault of the 
infidel or the licentious, as Galileo was unshaken 
amid all the persecutions of popery, when he told the 



THE CHURCH OF THE OUTCAST. 75 

world the true tlieory of the skies. In a word, with 
the Bible open before us, and the mind of God for 
our standard there, he is at once the strongest and 
the happiest Christian who has best learned to prac- 
tise what John taught by his example, ^' I was in 
the Spirit on the Lord's day.'' 

Now, we put that counsel first, because unless it 
be religiously acted on, all else will be vain. At the 
same time, we are now in circumstances for putting 
this matter to a practical proof upon a large scale. In 
various cities of the empire, there are churches formed 
well-nigh exclusivel}^ of those who, a few years ago, 
had no man who cared for their souls, and who had 
not learned to care for themselves. They were 
therefore, familiar with sin. It was their sport, or 
rather their daily woi'k, to do mischief. Some of 
them were at once corrupt and corrupting. But out 
of these very souls there have been formed the 
goodly spectacle of earnest worshippers, counted by 
hundreds, and characterized by all the aspects of 
devoutness. 

And, what is it that has achieved these results ? 
IIow does it happen that instead of the thorn the 
fir-tree has come up; instend of the brier, the 
myrtle? and how does the desert blossom as the 
rose? Who will hesitate to reply, that had it not 
been for the Sabbath, with all that is blessed and 
all that is hallowing in its exercises, such eflects 
could never have been produced? From day to day, 
nay, from hour to hour, pains and prayer were 




76 TRUE NOBTLTTY. 

needed. From hour to hour, the men of faith who 
put their hands to that work, had to depend on the 
blessing which comes from God only. But these 
blessings came in rich abundance on the Lord's own 
day; and now it can be said of this man and that 
man, formerly an outcast from the decencies of life, 
that he is born of the Spirit, clothed and in his right 
mind, by the Spirit's blessing on his truth proclaimed. 
In the light of eternity, such men are ennobled. 

Now, what raised them from their degradation, 
is yet more able to keep us from falling; and sure 
we are, that were there but one man in a work- 
shop who knew how to prize and profit by the 
Lord's day, he could, single-handed, keep his ground 
at once against taunts, against malice, and against all 
persecution. On that day our God leads us, if we 
will let him, into his pavilion ; He teaches us where 
to hide from " the strife of tongues," and it is thus 
that true nobility is imparted even to him 

•* Who ploughs with pain his native lea, 
And reaps the labour of his hands." 

11. Where it is our daily business to earn our 
bread by the sweat of our brows in the workshop, it 
should be one of our first and most resolute endea- 
vours, to make sure that the truth which Jesus 
brought from heaven to earth is deeply planted in 
our hearts and souls. — There are tender plants which 
thrive and bloom, or bear luxuriant fruit, if sheltered 
well, but which wither and die if exposed to the 
biting blast for a night ; and there is a parallel to 



INFIDELITY— 



77 



that in religion. In kindly or in genial exposures 
it may thrive, and put forth itc blossoms or bear fruit; 
but in many a workshop it is exposed to the rudest 
blasts that blow. 

One would try to crush it; he hates it because it 
will not let him sin. Like that profligate man who 
wished Keith's Evidences from Prophecy destroyed, 
" because they were so convincing;" many cry, Away 
with the Word of God, for the same reason that the 
Jews cried, Aw^ay, away with the Son of God— 
because it rebukes their iniquity. 

And another wishes the Word of God put down, 
because he remembers its effects upon his soul in 
earlier years, when a godly parent tried to impress it 
on the conscience and the heart. He has now cast 
these instructions behind his back. He has learned 
to sin with a high hand; and as the sight or the 
sounds of the truth re- awaken his old concern, he is 
eager to drive it from his presence. The very sight 
is a sting to his conscience. A single clause may 
be like a death-knell, and that man hates it with a 
perfect hatred. That is the root of much of the 
infidelity which is now so rife — not the want of 
proof, but the evil heart of unbelief; not mere igno- 
rance, but the preference of sin to holiness. 

Or a third among our fellow- workmen may be one 
who has known some signal hypocrite. That pre- 
tender sought, perhaps, to promote some sinister object 
by a religious profession. Perhaps he prayed ; per- 
haps he was a reprover of other men's sins ; perhaps 



78 ITS ROOT. 

he was an eager advocate for sound doctrine, and 
would endure no departure from it — yet, after all, he 
may be unmasked as a mere pretender, it may be 
discovered at length that he was all the while living 
in sin, concealed, but long continued, such as to indi- 
cate that his religion was a pretence, and his strict- 
ness- that of a Pharisee. Now, having discovered the 
hollowness of that man's pretensions, some gladly rush 
to the conclusion that all religion is a pretence \ 
they greedily grasp at the conviction, because it 
favours their own licentiousness, that " there is none 
righteous, no, not one." Religion in every form is 
therefore regarded as an offence, or discarded as an 
imposture. 

Or, in the workshop beside us, we may find some 
other man who affects to be scientific. He knowsr 
a little of Geology, and is able to overthrow Moses 
and the Bible. He is acquainted with the secrets 
of Chronology, and thinks that there are far older 
histories — older by many thousands of years — than 
the records of Scripture pretend to be. Or that man 
has heard a little of Ethnography, and because he is 
ignorant, he thinks it can be proved that all the 
dwellers on the earth did not spring from Adam 
and Eve. Or perhaps his learning takes the direc- 
tion of tracing the Vestiges of Creation, and he con- 
cludes that man can create — generally, that crea- 
tures can make each other, and that God is there- 
fore unnecessary. These, and similar pretensions of 
science, falsely so called, may have taken hold Oi 



» 



THE PANOPLY. 79 

some minds around us, and amid the multitude of 
such assailants, who are bold, as streams are brawl- 
ing, in proportion to their shallowness, it may not be 
always easy to be steadfast and unmoveable. 

But to render us unmoveable — to arm us ag-ainst 
such assailants — nothing will sullfice, till Christ dwell 
in our hearts by faith; till his truth be our property ; 
till the Saviour be a Saviour, and pardon a pardon, 
to us. A religion which has merely been handed 
down to us by our fathers, will not stand the rude 
shock of such assaults as have been named. We need 
to be rooted and grounded in the truth. We require 
a better and a deeper teaching than man's. It must 
be a fixed conviction in our soul, that religion does 
not consist in observing mere forms or seasons, how- 
ever devoutly. Christ must dwell in the heart, just 
as the blood must be in the body, and circulate thera 
as a vitalizing power. 

On this subject we cannot be too urgent. While 
there is absolutely no panoply but truth, our convic- 
tions need to be reinforced by the feeling, that it is not 
toil that degrades man ; it is not hard labour that ranks 
him among the lower orders ; it is sin. Adam, in in- 
nocence, had to work, and that did not degrade him. 
But he sinned, and that laid him in the miry clay. 
Paul the apostle had to work, and fc;lt no dislionour in 
it. The only dishonour which he knew, was rebellion 
against God ; and if we would resist the temptations 
which assail us from without or from within, we need 
to make sure that we are on tJie Lord's side ; that his 



80 BAPTISMAL SUPERSTITION-. 

ti-uth is in our hearts ; that it keeps watch in out 
souls, ready to sound an alarm, and suuimon us to 
action against every enemy. Without that, sur- 
rounded as we are in the workshop with clouds of 
enemies, we shall be like the willow wand before 
the blast, and driven of the wind and tossed ; but with 
the grace of God in the soul, we may be strong in the 
Lord and the power of his might ; we may beat back 
our assailants — some have won them to their cause. 
No power but truth, we repeat, will ever make us 
steadfast. Some invest our '^cottage homes" with 
the attractions of poetry, and tell that 

" Fearless there the lowly sleep, 
As the bird beneath their earea" 

But it is not poetic embellishments — it is nothing 
factitious in man's lot — it is the simple truth of God 
uniting to Christ, that elevates or ennobles the soul. 
There are some dark-souled tribes in Afiica, whose 
whole religion consists in charms and incantations. 
By means which we need not tarry to describe, they 
try to ward off what they reckon evil, or to obtain 
"what they reckon good. Now, strange as it may 
appear, that folly is native to the mind of man. 
The very same tendency' Avhich makes a degraded 
savage trust to a charm, makes some who are not 
savages tinist to rites, and ceremonies, and forms. 
One man concludes that he and his children are born 
again, or made the children of God, by the mere fact 
that they were baptized — that is, by a ceremony. 
Another thinks that his soul is right, because he 



I 



OUR ALLIES, 81 

worships among Christians. A third concludes that 
all is well, because the sacrament of the Supper has 
been administered to him ; that rite is to many a soul 
what the extreme unction of popery is- — a charm, an 
incantation, and nothing more. Now, while that is 
the only form of religion in man's soul, he will prove 
the ready victim of the snares and entanglements of 
the workshop. If the truth of God be not rooted in 
the heart, no man can stand. We repeat it, and 
repeat it — there is only one power that can either 
make us steadfast or keep us so — the grace of God 
in truth ; and the man who confides in aught else 
for conquest, is already tottering to his fall. 

Observe, however, w^e disown no right ally in this 
holy warfare. All knowledge that deserves the name 
— science as far as it can be acquired — should be ac* 
quired by every occupant of the workshop, and some 
memorable examples of success in its culture could 
be named. These, and all that can either strengthen 
or expand the mind, should be cultivated to the utter- 
most of our power ; but with all these, the mind may 
become an easy prey to baseless delusions, unless the 
wisdom which comes from above be our guide. While 
we hold our convictions firmly, we must hold them as 
God's truth, and in God's strength, or they will soon 
be wrung from our grasp. To be self-reliant is in some 
respects a duty which we owe to ourselves ; but yet to 
trust to our own resources, our own wisdom or strength, 
is the high way to shame and confusion at the last. 
We are prepared to resist and to triumph only when 



82 HUMAN DEVICES. 

we have on the whole armour of God. If we try to 
realize a Sa^dour's love, we have a sure defence; but 
whatever w^ould withdraw us from that holy intiii- 
ence, whether it be the deceitful heart within, or ha 
ensnaring world without, is just like the smoke from 
the abyss — it is loaded with darkness and death to 
the soul. 

There is a canoe floating lazily on the waters of 
the St. Lawrence. All is bright on either side ; and 
forests which nothing but the wild beast or the tem- 
pest has disturbed for centunes, wave in the plenitude 
of summer richness. In that canoe there is a boat- 
man asleep, and the gentle gliding of his little craft 
is fitted rather to rock than to rouse him. Gra- 
dually, however, the river flows more rapidly. The 
boat, with its sleeping cargo, feels the suction, and now 
rushes with increasing velocity along. Its agitation 
at length rouses the sleeper, but it is too late. His skiflf 
feels the resistless power of the current; and, amid wild 
gesticulations, he plunges into an abyss where his very 
fi'agments are destroyed. And similar results are 
seen in the moral world, when men permit themselves 
to be drawn within the suction of that current which 
IS sweeping so many down to ruin for ever. 

'Were it needful further to enforce this subject, we 
might refer to the ever- varying forms of delusion which 
heady and selfish men often obtrude on the notice of 
their fellow- workmen. Even in the course of a single 
generation we may count scheme after scheme — 
Utopian reforms — charters — new distributions of pro- 



SECULAUISM. 83 

perty or power — all designed to enlist men's sympa 
thies in favour of some dream-like project, only to 
plunge its abettors into a deeper abyss than" before. 
The most recent of these assumes the name of Secu- 
larism. It has for its object the abolition of Chris- 
tianity, and all that relates to the soul. One of its 
leading maxims is, " The precedence of the duties of 
this life over those pertaining to another world ;" and, 
by the advocacy of such opinions, the system and its 
supporters adapt themselves to all that is low and 
grovelling in the fallen soul. They beguile the un- 
wary, and make an easy conquest of those who have 
no religion but that of their country or their fathers. 
Or another dogma of the system is, that ''the atone- 
ment of Christ is unsatisfactory as a scheme, and 
immoral as an example;" and by such tenets men 
would tear up the foundation on which the hopes of 
mortality repose : they proudly but blindly sport 
with their own ruin, and glory in lowering them- 
selves to the level of the beasts which perish. 

Now, against such satanic schemes, there is no 
safeguard but one — the truth as it is in Jesus, 
planted in the heart by his Spirit, and tended there 
by his gracCo Our religion, or what we call re- 
ligion, will perish like flax before the flame, when 
such deceivers assail, unless we have felt the truth 
in its power, and know, in s])ite of all opposition, 
that it can guide, can purify, can bless tlic soul. 
What more congenial to man than to be told that he 
need not care much about his soul ? What can 



84 ^ THE HEAVENLY ANTIDOTE. 

throw open the door for indulgence so widely as to be 
assured that we need not prepare for hereafter — that 
earth is all? What can more perfectly pamper the self- 
ishness of man than to be told that " spiritual depend- 
ence may lead to material destruction ?'' Hence the 
danger of such bold blasphemies. They find an ally, 
and often a ready welcome, in the heart of man ; and 
hence also the necessity of getting hold and keeping 
hold of the heavenly antidote to all such delusions. 
That antidote is the truth — ^the truth of God felt in 
the heart, and guiding the life ; and with that in our 
possession, we repeat in our possession^ we may 
humbly take up the great Ileformer's eulogy, and 
say, " I will not fear the face of man." God and 
man, this world and the next, are alike provided for 
in the Word ; and when we learn to welcome all God's 
revelation, we shall be guided into every good and 
holy way. 

III. A third counsel for our guidance in the work- 
shop is, briefly — Be consistent. Never forget that 
the man who tries to be a Christian to-day, and com- 
plies with the enticements of sinners to-i:.orrow, is 
one who is easily despised. The ungodly are lynx- 
eyed to mark his inconsistency, and prompt enough to 
pour contempt upon him. A single rash act, a single 
rash word, may inflict a wound upon the soul, or a 
blemish upon the character, from which it will not 
easily recover; nay, like a moral palsy, it may strike 
us with weaknesii' and timidity for life. If we would 



THE COWARDICE OF SIN, 



85 



be Christians at all, we must be Christians always. 
Then by the grace of God we are safe, and it would 
be pleasant to tell of some Avho have thus resisted the 
tide of iniquity which broke against them in the work- 
shop, or silenced the abundance of abuse. — The sinner 
is, by a necessary law, a coward. He fears God, 
though he will not own it; he fears conscience, and 
tries to trample it out as a dangerous spark ; he fears 
perdition, though he seems to be stout against it; 
and, moreover, he fears a humble, living, consistent 
Christian, though he pretends only to despise him. 
The sinner, we repeat, is a coward, by a necessary 
law. Terror is part of the wages of sin ; and though 
sinners in crowds be courageous, alone they are timid 
and discomposed. They shrink from the glance of a 
good man^s eye ; in their secret heart they fear him 
with a fear which in some cases passes into love. 

Now, the knowledge of that should make the 
believer bold and firm. By consistency he will 
subdue — he may be the means of winning some from 
the error of their ways. He will generally find 
some Aquila with whom to associate as he works. 
His God will raise up some like-minded companion 
with whom he can take sweet counsel ; and if that 
believer will seek to keep alive in his memory, in 
the workshop and everywhere, the conviction, that 
there is only one really formidable thing in all 
God^s world, that is sin, he will be made more than 
a conqueror. Swayed by that deep conviction, the 
occupant of the workshop may often be vexed, as Lot 



86 A MORAL PESTILENCE. 

wari in Sodom; but, appealing to the Wonderful, the 
Counsellor, strength will be supplied according to his 
day, Avhile conscience is kept unsullied and at peace. 
The squalid victim of sin will be a beacon. The 
bold blasphemer will be an object of utmost pity. 
The Secularist, and all who give earth precedence to 
heaven, or man to God, or sin to holiness, will be 
shunned as a moral pestilence; and the felt neces- 
sity of being much at the fountain, amid all these 
sources of contamination, may turn the workshop 
into a Bethel. We could tell of more than one 
instance in which that has been the case. 

IV. As it is not our object to enter into details, but 
mainly to submit such general suggestions as Chris- 
tian wisdom may enable men to apply as occasion re- 
quires, we need scarcely say — At once, and resolutely, 
put away all the sinful compliances which may be 
common in the business which you pursue. There 
are usages, there are expressions, there are pretexts 
in many departments which pure principle would at 
once put down, and let the workman of integrity 
disown such things. The commonness of a sin only 
makes it worse; and instead of pleading that as a 
reason for compliance, it is, in truth, a reason for our 
instant recoil. And never take up the words which 
are common on the lips of some, that they may cover 
their iniquity, although the veil be thin: '^ An 
honest man cannot live now — that is, we must employ 
finesse, or fraud, in order to obtain a livelihood, or 



ANALOGIES. 87 

clear our way through the world/' Such a Rtntoment 
is a slander against the truth; it is dishonouring to 
the God of truth, and the very reverse of it is true. 
Ikit write it deep upon the conscience, that '' Better 
is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox 
and ' '-r'l'e,'^ and be assured that godliness has the 
promise of the life that now is, as well as of that 
which is to come. Be poor, but be not unprincipled. 
Sit down to very humble fare, rather than harbour 
an angry conscience. When sinners entice you, do 
not consent, whatever be the bribe. Holding fast 
your integrity, in the strength of your God, he \^ ill 
redeem his promise, " Bread shall be provided, and 
water made sure," and " Better is the little that a 
good man hath, than the riches of many wicked." 

Would you struggle for your life were you suddenly 
to fall into a stream or the sea? You w^ould: then 
will you cahnly sink to rise no more for ever, as 
regards the soul? Would you repel the attack of 
a robber were he to invade the midnight silence of 
your home? You would: then with equal earnestness, 
but in almighty strength, repel the invader — the man 
that would be the assassin of your soul. Would you 
refuse to let the oppressor plant his foot on the happy 
island of your home? You would hasten, I believe, 
to sweep him from our borders. Then, with equal 
heroism, defend the freedom which the S^n of God 
bestows — freedom from the bondage of sin, from its 
pollution and its curse. 

Nor should it be forgotten for the encouragement 



88 TOKENS FOR GOOD. 

of the sons of toil, that there is in our day a gradual 
approximation of the classes of society. The spread- 
ing of education, and the attempts of one class to 
benefit another, are bringing men more closely 
together, to link thcra, as we have seen, in more 
brotherly concord. There may still be the scowl of 
defiance from the lawless, and plots on the part of the 
disaffected^ while on the other hand, there are still 
some remains of a class fast verging to extinction, 
who would doom the people to hopeless ignorance 
and toil. But these are nearly obsolete notions, and 
men are more cordially walking together now, like 
those who are agreed. In the brief space of a quar- 
ter of a century, the hopes of philanthropists once 
deemed Utopian, have been turned into realities; 
and while the doctrine of Christ is thus adorned, 
nien^s sorrows are soothed, their souls are blessed. 

Many other counsels might be added to those now 
advanced. We might say — In the workshop avoid 
all high debate. It never leads to edification ; it often 
occasions the loss both of our temper and our cause. 
'* Be always ready to give to every one that a>ks it, 
a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness 
and fear.*' Be as ready to protest against all that is 
hostile to the soul and the happiness of man. But 
contention about religion is often its death ; and we 
would rather say, Hold in your mouth as with a 
bridle when the wicked are before you. Let the life 
argue for the Saviour and his cause, far more than 
the lip. In that way, men ^vill be compelled to take 



THE TEMPTER A REPTILE. 89 

knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus. 
The life of a Christian is always the most co.nclu- 
sive argument and the most solemn appeal. " Study 
to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to 
work with your own hands,'^ and let the contentious 
bite and devour, without retaliation from you. 

We might farther say — Be diligent. Above all, 
be diligent for Christ. It is thus that his people 
learn to put on amnour of proof against all tempta- 
tion. They redeem the time. They try to do all in 
the name of Christ, and he becomes like walls and 
bulwarks round about them. If you will learn to be a 
" miser of moments,'^ you may grow rich for eternity. 

Or we might say — When temptations come, remem- 
ber that ere the first tempter succeeded, he had to 
become a reptile ; and he that would tempt you is by 
that act a degraded being. He is to be shunned as an 
offence; as debased himself, and therefore anxious to 
debase. Such men may sell their souls for woe, but 
surely " in vain is the snare set in the sight of any 
bird — '' will you follow the example of a self- 
destroyer? 

Or we might add — Be not deceived by any of the 
pretexts which cunning men adopt to beguile and en- 
snare. On the one hand, they flatter the loorking 
classes, as if all were idle except the inmates of the 
workshop ; but you know that it is not so. What 
Paul said to the Colossians concerning his own doings, 
is true of many still : " I toil, agonizing," he said, 
" with the energy of Christ." On the other hand, 



90 ILLrSTRATIOXS. 

men speak of the lower orders as \iyou who toil were 
they. But the really low ai*e the men who live in 
idleness and sin. It is not toil, it is guilt that lowers 
or degrades us ; and that conviction should be rooted 
in all our minds. 

But enough. Let the men of handicraft and hard 
labour cling close to the Bible, for it alone can en- 
noble and purify. Before its light, let all grow pale ; 
before its wisdom, let all appear foolish. — As we 
approach the mighty Alps, other objects begin to 
seem small or diminutive ; and after our eyes have 
been familiarized with those majestic masses, what 
formerly appeared grand seems now reduced to little- 
ness. — Let it be so in the moral world. Before the 
majestic truth of God. let every human being do 
obeisance, like the sheaves of his brothers to the 
sheaf of Joseph ; and when we are like-minded with 
our God, we shall be strong in his strength, and happy 
with his peace. We cannot be always in his house — 
our daily toils forbid it ; but we should be always in 
his Spirit ; and that is light, that is strength, that 
is a passport for man to glory. 

Upon a subject so full of interest as the moral 
condition and prospects of those who spend their days 
in workshops, we should not perhaps be contented 
with merely announcing general rules, however sound 
or scriptural they may be. It is commonly supposed 
that the humble men who are so employed are cut 
off from the nobler outlets for philanthropy, or from 
those higher walks in which soiree mo^e and do great 



HAKLAN PAGE. 91 

deeds before the world's view. But no mistake can 
be more unfounded. The mighty Maker of heaven 
and earth has debarred no man from doing good, if 
man himself be inclined ; and some of the noblest 
benefactors of our land or race, have been found 
among the very classes too commonly supposed to 
be doomed only to toil. We waive all reference to 
those who, by their inventions, even while engaged 
in manual labour, have extended the resources of our 
empire, and added to the riches of our globe. We pass 
by those who have risen from among the sons of 
handicraft to take rank among our lawgivers, our 
nobles, and other signalized men. We point to only 
two examples not less illustrious as benefactors than 
they were humble in their sphere. 

Harlan Page was born at Coventry, in Connecti- 
cut, in the year 1791, and was taught by his father the 
trade of a house-joiner. He received a good common 
education. For twenty years and more he lived 
without much concern regarding his soul, but in the 
year 1813, "the one thing needful" really became 
an object of earnest pursuit. Such was his anxiety 
and distress on account of sin, that he had frequently 
to retire from his work to pray. On journeys he often 
felt constrained to withdraw to some thicket for a 
similar purpose ; and on one occasion, after he had 
begun to teach a school, his sense of his lost condi- 
tion r.9, a sinner became so intense, that he felt that 
he could not again leave the throne of grace till the 
controversy with his Maker was closed. There, in 



92 " BEHOLD HE PRAYETH." 

the darkness of midnight, and under the guidance, 
none can doubt, of the Holy Spirit, he consecrated 
himself to the Redeemer, not merely in the confidence 
of pardon and acceptance, but with the determination 
to live and labour to promote His glory in the sal- 
vation of the perishing. ^' When I first obtained 
hope,'' he said on his dying bed, " I felt that I must 
labour for souls. I prayed, year after year, that God 
would make me the means of saving some." 

And his prayer was signally answered. Never 
did Page lose an opportunity of holding up the lamp 
to souls. By letters, by conversation, by tracts, by 
prayers, by appeals and warnings, as well as by a 
holy and an earnest example, did he try to reclaim 
the wandering or edify the believer. In factories, in 
schools, and elsewhere, did this mechanic labour, 
and only the mighty power of grace can explain 
how one so humble could achieve so much : his life 
is a speaking comment on the words, " God hath 
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound 
the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of 
the world to confound the things which are mighty. 
And base things of the world, and things which are 
despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which 
are not, to bring to nought things that are." " Our 
faith in eternal realities is weak,'' he cried, " and 
our sense of duty faint, while we neglect the sal- 
vation of our fellow-beings. Let us awake to duty, 
and while we have a tongue or pen, devote them 
to the service of the Most High, not in our own 



LOVE TO SOULS. 93 

Btrength, but witli strong faith and confidence in 
him." 

Now, the record of this man's life shows that no 
day was allowed to pass without something done 
for the good of others' souls. What Page mainly 
aimed at was the conversion of the unconverted ; and 
the extent to which he was honoured may be viewed 
as at once an encouragement and a reproof. His 
own soul was all aglow when he heard of one after 
another brought to the Saviour. While he wept over 
men's iuipenitence, he exulted when he heard they 
had welcomed the call. He tried to win the young 
and warn the old, and his pleadings with sinners were 
sometimes most pathetic. " Shall neither man nor 
God," he said to one, " hear from your lips, ' my 
sins, my sins, T fear they will ruin my soul for ever ?' 
Shall no prayer, ' God, be merciful to me a sinner/ 
break from your heart?" " You are now in an awful 
crisis," he said to another. '' Your eternal all may 
depend on the course you take. The Lord has taught 
you by his Spirit that you are a wretched, perishing 
sinner. You feel that you have no preparation for 
heaven, and see nothing before you but eternal woe. 
0, my friend, there is a refuge. The Lord Jesus 
invites, in melting strains, ' Look to me, and live ; 
come unto me, and find rest!' go to Him 7^01:;, 
as you value your precious, your immortal soul." 

At other times Page was brief and sententious, but 
solemn. Seeing four youths, for example, on one occa- 
sion employed in some thoughtless course, he accosted 



94 A SPIRITUAL HARVEST. 

thera, and drove this laconic warning like a nail into 
their conscience, " "^repare to meet thy God !" — and 
it was blessed. In a word, he sowed beside all waters, 
and the increase was proportioned to his faith. All 
this took place amid bodily weakness and daily toil, 
insomuch that his ailments obliged him at last to 
seek a change of occupation, and he for some time 
taught a school during the winter seasons. One 
hundred and ninety-five pupils passed through the 
hands of Page in that character. The history of 
seventy of them is unknown ; but of the remaining 
one hundred and twenty-five, eighty-four are thought 
to have given evidence of conversion, and six became 
preachers of the gospel. In another place, fifty- 
eight were supposed to have been brought to Christ 
by his instrumentality. Such was the blessing which 
made him and others rich and added no sorrow. 

Nor need we wonder. So intense was the ardour 
of Page in dealing with souls, that he has been known 
even in sleep to suppose that he was expostulating 
with them, and to awake in tears of earnestness and 
pain. Knowing that every child of the fallen Adam 
must either be born again, or never see God, he 
made that the burden of all his endeavours, his 
prayers, his struggles, and tears. To labour for 
that became a portion of his very being; and he died 
as he had lived, beckoning all around him to follow 
him to be for ever with the Lord. 

Here, then, is a man in humble life, without any 
adventitious aid, without any learning, for many 



JOHN POUNDS. 95 

•years the occupant of a workshop, yet living, labour- 
ing, dying to win souls to Christ. He was, indeed, u 
sweet savour of Christ wherever he went; and should 
not the example of Harlan Page summon many in 
his own sphere to go and do likewise? Does it not 
prove, that if we have the grace of God in our heart, 
it is not rank, or wealth, or learning, or power, but 
a willing mind, and consecration to Christ, his cause 
and glory, that are required to accomplish great 
things? Let our artizans imbibe the spirit of Page, 
and then they may be honoured as he was; it may 
be inscribed upon their tombstones as it was upon 
his, " He ceased not to warn every one night and 
day with tears." 

John Pounds was another benefactor to society 
who deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance. 
He was born at Portsmouth in the year 1766. By 
the fracture of a limb, he was forced to change his 
employment as a shipwright for that of a shoemaker, 
or rather shoe- mender, for he never rose to the rank 
of a maker, and as the occupant of a ^' weather- 
boarded tenement'' in his native town, John divided 
his time between his awls and deeds of active bene- 
volence. A cripple himself by his accident, he had 
also the charge of a decrepit nephew; and the boy for 
some time divided the attention of Pounds \rith a 
number of tame birds, which he kept from affection or 
for anmsement. By exercising his ingenuity and 
benevolence at once, he succeeded in restoring some 
degree of soundness to his nephew : he then undertook 



o 



96 A LOWLY PHILANTHROPIST. 

to teach him to read ; and that led him to seek som« ' 
companion for his ward and pupil, under the wise 
impression that the one would stimulate the other, 
and the progress of both be promoted. His pupils 
gradually increased in number : his love of teaching 
grew upon him, and the work soon knew no limits 
but those of John's very humble abode. It w^as 
about six feet wide by eighteen in length ; and in that 
apartment did Pounds, surrounded by his scholars, 
ply his double avocation of cobler and schoolmaster. 
The progress of the scholars was as diverse as the 
employments of the master ; but he bore all with 
gladness. He had his eye upon each outcast in the 
group, and by his expertness he showed that he was 
a born teacher — his gift lay in training. 

As Pounds rose in popularity, the applications for 
admission to his seminary increased ; and with a 
remarkable but wise instinct, he selected " the little 
blackguards" in preference to others, that he might 
enjoy the pleasure of breaking them in like the wild 
ass's colt. Some he would allure to liis school by such 
poor bribes as he could command; and though his 
labours were unrequited, though he had not the means 
of purchasing school-books, but taught the alphabet 
from handbills and fragments of old volumes, yet some 
hundreds of persons owed all the learning they ever 
acquired to this facetious, devoted, and humble phi- 
lanthropist. He helped to keep down the calendar of 
crime, and sent not a few into life possessed of ac- 
quircjnents sufficient to impart respectability in their 



man's ruin and rise. 97 

sphere, who, had it not been for John Pounds, the 
founder of Ragged Schools, might have become the 
pests or the plunderers of society. 

Such, then, is another instance of philanthropy, 
in one of the humblest of mankind. After this, why 
wait for some costly apparatus for doing good ? Why 
delay the attempt to make the world better, however 
humble our sphere may be, when we see one so lowly, 
yet so honoured — so poor, yet making so many others 
rich? Nay, with the grace of God in the heart, and 
love to souls as its invariable attendant, be it the felt 
duty, the privilege, the resolute vow of all, even in 
the workshop, to seek to convert some sinner from 
the error of his ways, and thereby hide a multitude of 
sins.— As one wanders over the Seven Hills of Rome, 
he may often pick up a marble fiagment of a frieze, a 
portion of a capital, a volute, or a triglyph, telling of 
the grandeur which once w^as there, when the palace 
of the Csesars crowned more than one of the hills, and 
the " Golden House*' of Nero formed the glory of the 
whole. And, in like manner, amid the ruins and the 
debris of our fallen nature, we sometimes find what 
reminds us of its primal glory, and of the depth to 
which it has fallen; and 3^et assuring us, that fallen 
though it be, it may not have fallen for ever. Bene- 
factors to humanity, like Harlan Page and John 
Pounds, occupy that rank among men. 

There is no weariness to him who w^orks for Christ: 
he is willing to spend and be spent. No sullen 
drudgery is his, as if work were only a doom — nay, 

G 




98 SERVING THE LORD. 

rather cheerful work from a glad, emancipated spirit, 
and joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That 
sweetens toil; that braces the arm; that nerves man's 
spirit for all that can ever come; and even his daily 
work, as a husbandman, or an artizan, is thus spiri- 
tualized into a service to his God. 



I 



99 

CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGION IN THE MARKET- PLACB* 

Let not the design of these chapters be forgotten. 

There are few opinions more prevalent among men, 
than that religion is to be attended to only at certain 
places or on set occasions. While some entirely ne- 
glect it, and live from day to day without one solemn 
thought of God or the soul, others would attend to it 
only at fixed seasons, or when established usage calls 
them. At other times, religion is reckoned an intruder. 
It interferes with the pursuits, or it interrupts the 
pleasures of men. It must therefore be kept in its 
proper place, without venturing to appear in the ordi- 
nary business or the common intercourse of life. 

The Romanist, accordingly, hurries to Mass; and 
that over, he hastens away to his holiday, his folly, 
and his sports. The formalist, whether Protestant 
or E-omanist, complies with his routine, appears at 
church, or tells his beads, and then dismisses reli- 
gion from his thoughts. The young leave religion 
to the old. The old often postpone its claims, till 
attention to it is useless, unless it could operate like 
a charm; and thus the one thing needful is the last 
thing that some will permit to obtain any ascendency 
over their minds. 

But instead of adopting such maxims, all who are 
in earnest about the world to come have felt, that 



100 THE ALIMENT OF THE SOUL. 

just as the body needs the vital air at all {lines, the 
soul at all times needs the guidance of truth; or as 
the body may die, in the twinkling of an eye, if it 
be deprived of that which is appointed by God to 
keep it in life, so the soul cleaves to the dust — it 
becomes dead to the noblest of all objects, even to 
God and eternity — Avhen it is not constantly fed or 
constantly stimulated by the truth which connects us 
with Him in whom we live, and move, and have our 
being. 

Under the deep conviction of that, we have tried 
to show how the truth w^hich the Spirit teaches in the 
Word of God, should be mingled with all that we 
do. Far from leaving it out of view for a breath, it 
is a party to all our transactions ; it should be a coun- 
sellor in all our difficulties, and a guide in all the rela- 
tions of life. The heart, the home, the w^orkshop; 
the place of public resort, as well as the place where 
no eye sees, and no ear hears, but God's, should find 
us evermore accompanied by the truth, evermore sub- 
ject to its control, w^hile it directs our thoughts, our 
words, and deeds, according to the will of God. 

We are now, then, to contemplate Christianity in 
the Market-place, or the place where business is wont 
to be done. Epithets of contempt have been applied 
to us as a nation, because of our busy engrossments in 
the countless, departments of buying, and selling, and 
getting gain; and it cannot but be important to con- 
sider the maxims which should guide us in such 
pursuits. 



THE MERCHANT PRINCES. 101 

Now, it Is one of the glories of our faith, that it 
makes ample provision for all the activities of life. 
Yet, under pretext of being devout beyond the stand- 
ard of ordinary men, there have been some who fled 
to deserts, and dwelt in dens and caves of the earth. 
Professing to seek a closer walk with God, or more 
ample scope for the culture of the Christian graces, 
they have forsaken the duties of life, and made 
themselves useless to society, as if indolence were 
a virtue, or inactivity a fruit or a proof of true re- 
ligion. 

But any one who will merely glance at the Word 
of God, may see that such opinions find no sanction 
there. Far from encouraging inactivity, or exh>ort- 
ing us to forsake the post of duty, and retire to 
loneliness and seclusion, that Word expressly pro- 
hibits such a course. It tells us not to be slothful 
in business. It says that what our hands find to do, 
we should do it with all our might. It assures us 
that we must study to be quiet, and do our own 
business, and work with our own hands. It adds, 
that if any man will not work, neither shall he eat. 
It sets a brand upon those who " learn to be idle, 
who wander about from house to house, not only idle, 
but tattlers also." In short, religion, as it lies in the 
Bible, stands at our side in the place of business, and 
says, "Be not slothful here;^' and adds, " It is the 
hand of the diligent which maketh rich."— AMiile 
we gaze on the merchant princes on the Exchange 
of London, when some exciting rumour has arrived, 



102 THE ENTHRONEMENT OF SELF. 

some war been proclaimed or threatened, or while 
some mercantile crash is impending, or some mil- 
lionaire bankruptcy just announced — we cannot but 
feel that if men retain their religion amid these 
excitements, they are religious according to the 
highest standard that earth can ever know. Not 
the recluse, not the man whose life is idle, and 
whose duties are tame and domestic, can display 
the loftiest style of Christianity; but the man who 
holds fast his integrity amid the activities of life, 
and embodies in his practice the scriptural injunc- 
tion, " Be not slothful in business/' 

True, this maxim is often more than obeyed; busi- 
ness absorbs, business agitates, business ruins millions. 
Surrendering themselves without a check to its en- 
grossments, they are swallowed up by overmuch care, 
and socially and religiously become wrecks, though 
they may pile up gold in heaps. How many in this 
land are making gold their god, and fine gold their 
confidence, we need not try to tell. But to correct 
that tendency, the word of truth has commanded 
our men of busy lives not merely to be active, but, 
moreover, to be "serving the Lord'' by their activity. 
It is not activity for the sake of amassing wealth ; 
it is not activity merely that we may stand among 
the foremost in the market-place, or be able, as some 
have been, to give laws to kings and empires, to 
make peace or to declare war. That is not religion ; 
it is the enthronement of self We are to serve the 
Lord even in our business. His will is to be our 



MAMMON. 103 

Will there, as much as when we are upon our knees 
before him. The objects to which he points are to 
be pursued by us; and thus, amid the scenes of 
busiest occupation, w^here much that is secular may 
tend to disturb, or much that is sordid to debase, 
the man of activity is also to be the man of piety 
and of Christian principle. Keligion is not to be 
kept fur set times and set occasions ; it is not to be 
left behind us when we leave our homes : na}'-, as the 
Lord is in every place, the fear of him should every- 
where preside. 

When the Saviour said, *' I pray not that thou 
wouldst take them out of the world, but that thou 
should st keep them from the evil that is in the 
world," he not merely uttered a prayer, but, more- 
over, announced a rule for regulating duty; and they 
who have imbibed the spirit of His words, under- 
stand the religion of Jesus — a religion most ex- 
quisitely adapted to man on earth, a religion at 
once of ever- doing activity, and of faithful serving 
the Lord amid it all. There are, no doubt, snares 
and perils beyond what can be counted to the souls 
of men, in the engrossments of business. In com- 
merce, through all its branches, as it appears in oui 
land and day, there is much to deaden the soul, 
much to eraze the very thought of God ; and hence 
Mammon is the only god of many. But the reason 
of that is, not that business is essentially godless, but 
that men prefer God's gifts to himself. Because he is 
forgotten, thousands are ensnared; they are as com- 



104 PRINCIPLE. 

pletely entombed in worlclliness, as the corpse that 
was yesterday interred is entombed in the deep grave 
where it lies. 

On the one hand, then, some are diligent in their 
business; but they forget to serve the Lord, and so 
their business becomes the grave of the soul. On 
the other hand, some would serve Him; but they 
keep that service apart from their business: they are 
as worldly there, as selfish, as ready to grasp and 
to amass, as if responsibility to God could be shut 
up in the Bible after a passage of it has been for- 
mally perused. But the Christian merchant comes in 
between these two. In the one hand he takes the 
clause, *' Be not slothful in business ; " in the other 
he takes the words, " Serving the Lord.'^ He unites 
them in his life; that is, he takes religion from the 
Bible ; and instead of separating what God has 
joined — namely, diligence and godliness — that man 
is perfectly convinced, because the Spirit of God is his 
teacher, that success would be a curse, that thou- 
sands added to thousands would only augment his 
woe, were he to leave the will of God out of view in 
the place of public resort. 

With this general truth before us, then, if we be 
Christians at all, we must he Christians everywhere^ 
let us consider some Counsels tending to make us 
Christians, according to the standard of the Bible. 
How may I assuredly retain my Christianity in the 
Market-place, in the haunts of Commerce, or among 
its busy men? An answer to that question may 



WICKEDNESS AND FOLLY, ONE. 105 

serve as a guide through what is, in truth, a deep 
and dangerous morass. 

And the first Counsel we would announce is this ; 
God is a party in all our transactions in the Market- 
place; we are either serving him or sinning against 
him in all that we do. It is to be feared, indeed, that 
many forget this simple truth amid their manifold 
engrossments. They forget that the God of justice 
is a party in men's unjust proceedings ; that the 
God of truth is a witness to* all their falsehood ; that 
He who cannot look on sin is present at every act, 
detecting fraud and deceit wherever they appear. In 
very emphatic language, men thus make the Holy 
One " serve with their sins;" He supplies the power, 
the skill, the reason, which they pervert into instru- 
ments of iniquity against him and fraud upon their 
fellow-men. But shunning all this, it should be our 
rooted maxim in the Market-place, and everywhere 
besides, that that Holy One is a party in all that we 
do; he is either served or sinned against. We can- 
not swerve from truth, we cannot violate justice, we 
cannot let go our integrity, without forsaking Him. 
It should, therefore, be as firmly rooted in our con- 
victions as the most simple moral truth, that what- 
ever dishonours God cannot benefit us. It should 
be written on the conscience as with a pen of iron 
upon a rock, that the man who expects true success 
in violating the eternal principles of right and wrong, 
is not merely wicked, but foolish. The man who 
expects to prosper by '' glossy fraud," has already 



106 THE WOE OF THE WICKED. 

inflicted a sore degradation on his moral nature. 
Even though he may be lifted up by wealth to sit 
among princes, he is, in the eyes of God, a degraded 
and an outcast creature. He has sold his soul for 
what must soon be wrung from his grasp. He has 
bowed down to an idol as senseless, and as unable 
to bless him, as the stone god of the Hindoo devoteec 
Though a world were in league to prove the contrary, 
ungodly gain wraps up a curse in it; and the larger 
the pile, the more deadly or crushing are its effects. 
Those were solemn words which Eliphaz spoke to 
Job : "I saw him taking root, but I cursed his 
habitation."* 

Let God, then, be recognised as a party in all 
that is done. Be it our maxim, in the market-place 
as w^ell as on our knees: "Thou, God, seest me;'' 
and it will at once fortify and warn us. He who for- 
gets that simple principle in our busy day, is like 
one w^ho casts the pilot overboard v> hen the tempest is 
rising. 

The suggestion now offered would at once sweep 
away those petty encroachments which pass in the 
world almost without rebuke, but which are an offence 
to the Holy One. It seemed a small and venial thing 
^-o Eve to do what she did, and to Adam to follow her 
example; but that little thing dragged the world to 
ruin. And so before God, offences deemed venial by 
man are seen in the defilement and the hatefulness 

* Job V. 3. 



MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. 107 

of sin. Hence the call to act under the divine eye — 
to adopt the divine standard — to make God a party 
in all our proceedings. His holiness, his justice and 
truths should at once repress the unprincipled and 
encourage the pure; and man would then be made 
upright towards man by being made right whh God. 

But side by side with that, we must place a second 
Counsel, not less needed than the other — Watch with 
care, lest the engrossments of business should so accu- 
mulate as to overlay and crush the godliness of the soul. 
Amid the pressure of times like ours, this is one of 
the greatest perils of the market-place : it is destroy- 
ing its tens of thousands. Men eagerly plunge into 
speculation after speculation. They try to extend, 
to ramify, and engross, till you might suppose they 
have a home in city after city; nay, in kingdom 
after kingdom. Not contented with the gains, the 
competency, or the honest rewards of what they can 
easily overtake or personally control, many make 
such haste to be rich, that an empire is too limited 
for their plans. In their zeal, they embark in 
scheme after scheme ; they wrap themselves round 
with entanglement after entanglement, till, in some 
cases, the ends of the earth are not too remote for 
their desires to reach. 

Now, far be it from us to place restrictions where 
the only wise God places none ; far be it from us 
to limit enterprise, as if all should be domestic, or 
run in the channels of home. It would be hinder- 



108 TRUE ENTERPRISE : 

ing, not helping Christianity in the Market-place, 
to define and circmnscribe where its Author has 
not defined. The very sea — that "highway of the 
nations" w^hich surrounds our island — would rebuke 
the attempt. Godliness is not to be confined in mo- 
nasteries, or even to the domestic circle; for if that 
were the case, then godliness could not be designed 
for man as man. It would apply only to a fragment 
of his nature, instead of diffusing the w^isdom of Hea- 
ven over it all. But if it be that godliness which is 
the result of grace, and not that which is only a phase 
of monasticism, there is not a scene, however homely, 
where it may not preside; nor an enterprise, however 
grand, w^hich it may not direct. It is only a frag- 
ment of religion, or of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
which would leave the counting-house, or any sphere, 
without heavenly direction. 

The exhortation, " Be not slothful in business,'^ 
then, opens a wide door for active energy ; and we 
make no attempt to shut it. But still, there is only 
a certain length to which any man can proceed with- 
out sinning, amid these engrossments and accumu- 
lated cares. Bear witness fomilies neglected — family 
altars thrown down — early hopes blighted — early 
religion erazed from the soul — as speculations and 
engagements increase. We have no right to laden 
ourselves with a multitude of cares such as shall over- 
lay, or supplant, or endanger the truth of G od in the 
heart. Every moment may be one of high-toned 
integrity between man and man ; every transaction 



ITS LIMITS. 109 

may be presided over by purest equity: in the 
market-place, a merchant prince might bhish to be 
even suspected of the mean, the fraudulent, or the de- 
ceptive. But what if these moments and these trans- 
actions, so pure in appearance, be so numerous or so 
engrossing, as to prevent attention to the high con- 
cerns of eternity and the soul? What if my mind 
and my body be so worn out or worn down by these 
protracted hours of merchandise, that the things 
which belong to my eternal peace are neglected, or 
pushed from their proper place, which is the first f 
Am I not sinning against my soul and my God, 
by such exhausting engrossments ? ! how many 
are ruined — ruined not by dishonesties in business, 
but by over- devotion to it! not by defrauding a 
neighbour, but by defrauding their own soul alike 
of all time and all taste for attending to the cue 
thing needful ! 

We plead, let it be remembered, for no inactivity, 
for there are perils in idleness as well as amid 
the cares of business. If the latter destroy by 
crushing, the former wastes by rusting. But our 
urgency converges upon this point — men ought not 
so to plimge into this world's engrossments — so to be 
entangled by this world's cares — so to laden them- 
selves with this world's clay — as to leave neither lik- 
ing, nor time, nor strength, for fervour of spirit in 
serving the Lord — '' Inj.s.nuch as ye did it not unto 
me," will tarnish the glory of all such doings. Every 
moment as it passes, in the life of some busy men, 



ft. 



110 THE PERILS OP BUSINESS. 

may be a moment of higli-souled integrity between 
man and man ; and yet there is danger, lest all the 
moments summed together should be one long act of 
complicated robbery — a robbery of God, because he 
was forgotten — a robbery of the soul, because it was 
neglected for things which often melt as we grasp 
them — a robbery of those dependent on us for reli- 
gious guidance and example, because we are stran- 
gers at home, or, when w^e appear there, it is rather 
as the careworn speculator or the hoarding miser, 
than as the kindly, genial, sympathizing husband, 
father, brother, friend. 

TVe know that it is the golden maxim of some, that 
religion must give way to business. We have been 
told by one who could stand unabashed on the Ex- 
change, that *' God did not expect us to be too strict 
in these things/^ and swayed by that maxim, if reli- 
gion do not give way at the bidding of cupidity, its 
control is boldly disowned. Now, we need not add, 
that the man who has adopted such an opinion has 
at once dismissed the Word of God from his counsels, 
and consented to forego the use of reason in the 
highest of all its spheres — he has laid his soul, a 
manacled victim, on the altar of Mammon. That 
man is not seeking^rs^ the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness; that is, he is deliberately setting aside 
one of the simplest, plainest, and most unequivocal 
injunctions contained in the Word of the Supreme. — 
It is well known that, among the ancient heathens, 
the c:od of traffic was also the ^rod of fraud. The 



Jl 



THE PERILS OF BUSINESS. Ill 

Romans, moreover, had a goddess of thieves, whom 
one of their poets thus addresses : — 

fair Lavema, grant me power to cheat, 
And yet appear arrayed in saintly guise ; 
Let sable night enshroud my deep deceit, 
And clouds conceal my fraud from prying eyes.* 

— And is there no reason to fear that that spint has 
been perpetuated to modern times ? 

Now, in these remarks, we have just been enforcing 
a trite, but profound maxim, '' What is a man profited, 
though he could gain the whole world, if he lose his 
own soul?" Surely men buy gold at too high a 
price, when their immortal spirits are given in ex- 
change for it. Success in such a case is a terrible 
disaster, and far better a mercantile crash than eter- 
nal ruin. To give ourselves up to the devoted pur- 
suit of the world, and to secure what we pursue, while 
God and heaven are forsaken, is a calamity to be de- 
plored through all eternity. Better far the cross and 
the disappointment ; better far the shattered hope and 
the world's neglect, than to sit with princes and to for- 
feit heaven — to rank among those whose gold cannot be 
counted, and yet to be poor, and wretched, and miser- 
able in the high estimate of eternity — There is an 
animal which strikes the arm with feebleness the 
moment it is touched. The muscles are benumbed, 
the sense of feeling is for the time destroyed, and the 
affected parts areas if they had been struck by liglit- 
ning, and in a similar way, do this world's cares 

* " Pulchra Laverna, 
Damihi fallere, da justo rianctoque videri." — Hor. 



112 THE PRETALEN'CE OF THE FALSE*. 

benumb or stupify the soul. Its desire for the good 

and the pure, and its power to enjoy them, are at once 
destroyed by intense engrossment with the world's 
cares ; and he who has not felt and lamented the 
efiects of such engrossment, should beware, lest his 
want of feeling be the result of his want of life. 

As a Counsel which we believe to be pre-eminently 
needed, we observe next, that the man of integrity 
and Christian principle, will, in the Market-place, 
comply with none of the conventional maxims of busi- 
ness which are based upon the false, — TTere it our 
object to enter into these things in detail, it would not 
be difficult to show to what an amazing extent the 
false, the pretended, the deceptive, now enter into the 
business of our commercial or mercantile community. 
It must be enough to say, that the father of lies has 
taken possession of ten thousand points in business, 
and often holds them all at the expense of integrity 
and truth. Lies are spoken ; lies are acted ; decep- 
tions are practised ; and conscience is all the while 
prevented from lifting any effectual protest, by the 
fact that such things are common. Even those chan- 
nels of public opinion which do not usually adopt 
the Scriptures of truth as their standard, confess 
their amazement at the Jesuitical want of ingenuous- 
ness, or the incredible amount of dishonesty, which 
signalizes even those who move in the highest 
spheres. Descending, that spirit has taken possession 
of other classes — it has actually come to pass, that 



INSTANCES. 113 

he IS deemed simple who is upright, or punctilious 
who is honest. Nay more, in defending this state of 
moral degeneracy, there are some who do not scruple 
to quote the Word of the God of truth. "Be not 
righteous overmuch," is a favourite passage with 
some, as if it gave any countenance to him who seeks 
wealth by disreputable means — by calling that all silk 
which he knows to be partly made of cotton, or that 
genuine which he knows to be adulterated, or that 
perfect which he knows to be defective. — Would that 
it were superfluous to dwell upon such subjects — that 
we never had occasion to refer to them and to the 
Church of God in the same breath ! " Serving the 
Lord^^ — that clause should banish for ever all such 
things from the practice and the ways of men pro- 
fessing to be Christians, and if they are not banished, 
we can picture nothing so likely to make religion an 
offence, and a Christian profession a subject of scorn, 
to honest worldly men. 

Farther, we have been told that there are some in 
business who will not credit those who make a pro- 
fession of godliness. They deem that profession a 
cloak, and they either tear it off or despise it. Now, 
we reckon that, to a great extent, just a display of the 
worldly man's hatred to the restraints and the sancti- 
ties of religion. He knows that such a profession upon 
his lips would be hypocrisy, and he ignorantly deems 
it the same in others. Hence his contempt for a re- 
ligious profession — his distrust of all who make it. 
Yet, is there no pretext afforded to that worldly man 

H 




114 THE believer's OBLIGATIONS. 

for the opinions which he holds? If those professing 
religion are known to imitate examples, or to adopt 
practices, and act upon maxims which religion repu- 
diates — if they be as grasping as those who make no 
such pretensions as they do, are they not cheering 
on the ungodly in their unchristian career? Are 
they not doing all that they can to assure the worldly 
man that his views of religion are correct — that it 
is a pretence, hypocrisy, and a name? 

For these reasons, we return to say, that all com- 
pliance with customs founded upon what is known to 
be false, should be shunned in business by a man of 
God. All should be transparent as sunlight with 
him. He should never forget, that to escape detec- 
tion is very different from being honest; and that 
the man w^ho has committed himself to some course 
opposed to what is pure, or lovely, or of good re- 
port, must either trample conscience out, or endure 
its gn awing s, as fable says Prometheus endured the 
vulture. There are temptations, we grant, in a state 
of society like ours,' where gold is not merely a 
standard of value in the market-place, but often the 
standard of character among men. Withal, however, 
I am not bound to be rich; but I am bound not to 
bring an evil report upon the Christian name. I am 
not bound to remain in a certain sphere, and there 
draw a certain revenue; but I am bound not to sin, 
I am not bound to retain my position at the expense 
of conscience; but I am bound not to cheer on a 
covetous world to ruin by sharing its ungodliness or 



» 



THE STANDARD. 115 

smiling upon its falsehood. Nay, by the grace of 
God, we are to hold fast our integrity. We are to say, 
" Get thee behind me, Satan,'' to the most plausible 
pretext for sinning; and if there be few among our 
merchant princes who act on such maxims — if they be 
uncommon in the Market-place — that is because few 
go to the Word of God for their standard of duty — 
few, with meekness and reverence to the Holy One, 
combine in action these three clauses : " Not slothful 
in business" — " Fervent in spirit" — '' Serving the 
Lord." *' One is your master, even Christ." To 
him we are responsible in every relation ; and that 
responsibility is discharged only when we remember 
the words: '' Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus." 

But we have only broken ground in regard to 
Christianity in the Market-place. 

It is a universal law, that every soul of man must 
have an object to pursue. The ambitious man has 
his object: he pursues it; and if he succeed in his 
pursuit, he sinks into the grave, crushed perliaps, 
like Tarpeia of old, by the weight of his success. 
And the covetous man has his object : he embarks 
his whole soul in the pursuit; and while a thousand 
who strive with him fail or are beggared, he who suc- 
ceeds is perhaps the most signally wretched of them all. 
And the lover of pleasure has his object of pursuit : 
he dismisses the fear of God, and, like one who is 
ambitious of wretchedness, he drinks up iniquity, 
though along with it he drinks up poison to his soul. 



^ 



116 THE bible's light. 

In a word, the fool and the wise man, the young and 
the old, the ignorant and the learned, all have some 
master object to pursue. That object may involve 
destruction, for it may be sinful ; or it may tend to dig- 
nify and ennoble, for it is pure and holy; but what- 
ever be its character, it is a law in man's nature, that, 
from the child amused with its toy, up to the hoary 
patriarch tottering forward to the grave, man must 
have something to fill and to engross his mind. 

Now, the Word of God, which is so exquisitely 
adapted to man, takes that great law fully into 
account; and we advert to that again, because it fur- 
nishes an opportunity for repeating, that that Word 
does not repress man's activity — it only tries to give 
it a right direction: it does not leave man without 
a pursuit — it only presents him with one which is 
worthy of his immortal nature. Knowing that man 
washes to advance or to rise, the Bible puts a light 
into his hand, and tells him to be the heir of God, a 
joint- heir with Christ. Knowing that man seeks to 
accumulate and amass, the Bible tells of unsearch- 
able riches and treasures in heaven. Knowing that 
man's strongest impulse is to seek his own happiness, 
the Bible perfectl}^ responds to that, and offers the 
very peace of God : it points to a home of everlasting 
sunshine, without a tear, without one solitary want. 
There is thus no attempt to suppress, but only to 
direct, man's aspirations. Nothing that God gave 
to man is to be extinguished: all is to be sanctified 
and sublimed. 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 117 

To make this plain, we observe that all are familiar 
with the power exercised over the soul by any new 
object or new pursuit. Begin with the earlier years 
of infancy. See a little child engrossed with his 
toy. His whole sod is absorbed by it; for a time it 
is his world. But present him with some new ob- 
ject; the former is speedily discarded, while the new 
engrosses the mind as the old had done. Or pass 
onward from childhood to youth. There also jou 
see the same law prevailing. Mind is never left a 
blank. The old is discarded, but it is for the sake 
of the new; and man thus flits from object to object, 
the last being always the ascendant. Or pass upvv^ard 
to still graver years, and there also the same law 
prevails. One pursuit, one passion, one object of 
interest after another sways the heart, alternately 
expelled and expelling from the soul. The love of 
God in a converted soul supersedes the supreme love 
of the world. The pleasures of godliness take the 
place of the pleasures of sin. The power of the world 
to come overmasters the power of a present evil world; 
and thus a wise and ex:quisite law guides us in reli- 
gion — a law as simple in its operation as that which 
keeps the planets in their orbits. 

Now, in accordance with that law, our next Counsel 
is, that the Christian in the Market-place, should 
never forget that he is not forbidde^^ to s( ek earthly 
things at all; he is onl}^ forbidden to seek thcmjirst. 
The Saviour just wished man to prefer what should 
be preferred — to put eternity before time, and C^oJ 



J 18 REASON AND RELIGION AT ONE. 

before man, and the soul before the body; and 
wherever men have escaped from the control of blind 
passion, such a maxim must be approved for its 
wisdom. To believe that there is both a God and a 
soul, and yet seek some ephemeral thing before either 
or both, is surely to outrage reason, as well as to 
turn aside from the plainest maxims of religion. On 
the other hand, he who sets the Lord before him has 
adopted a course which will more than realize the 
fable of Midas, who turned all that he touched into 
gold. 

And who can doubt that confidence placed or pre- 
ference given anywhere but to God, will blight and 
wither all at last? Who can doubt that the accumu- 
lated thousands of many who name Christ's name are 
their god? The}^ seek happiness there. They find all 
their enjoyment there. These thousands are their 
rock, their confidence, and their high tower. They 
not merely seek them firsts they seek them exclu- 
sively. The portion of their heart is there as com- 
pletely as the confidence of the Hindoo upon Shiva, 
or of the Romanist upon Mary. It is thus that God 
is dethroned, and thus that man's blossom often goes 
up like the dust from the midst of his idolatrous con- 
fidence. 

But another maxim which should guide ui in 
business, may be thus expressed. — In the Mark.ft- 
place, never forget v:liat u due to your Chrlsiian 
profession. We may forget it, but the world will 



EQUIVOCATIONS. 119 

not; nay, we have seen how prompt men are to con- 
demn us for our oblivion. We may plunge into the 
world as other men do. Deceived by our own hearts 
or by the hollow maxims which prevail around us, we 
may lose sight of the distinction between the frauds 
of men and the truths of God. But though we may 
forget to seek first the kingdom of God, the world 
does not forget that we profess to seek it first. Nay, 
it is lynx-eyed to detect our pretences, and eager to 
point the finger of scorn at our unmasked inconsist- 
ency if we be inconsistent. The world feels that it 
needs some countenance in its oblivion of God; and 
it is cheered, encouraged, or a little more at ease, 
when Christians are oblivious like itself. As we have 
already seen, there are words spoken, there are deeds 
done, in many departments of business, which are 
unequivocally false — describe them to an unsophis- 
ticated little child, and he will tell you at once '^it is 
a lie.'' Yet it is well known that gentle names are 
current for such forms of deception, as well as for some 
of our household arrangements. Glozing pretexts are 
employed to cover and conceal them, and the uneasy- 
conscience, in spite of common habit, is betrayed by 
the fetches v/hich are thus made. Even a worldly 
man's conscience would start, at least at first, were such 
things distinctly called fraud, or overreaching, or a 
lie. Palliating epithets are therefore thrown over 
them, like gaudy trappings upon a coffin; and, then, 
as if a gentle name could conceal an unprincipled 
thing, men barter for gain the concerns of the king- 



ft 



120 CONSISTENCY. 

dom of God. They often value that kingdom at less 
than Judas did, Avhen he sold its King for thirty 
pieces of silver. 

Now, all who would be Christians in the Market- 
place should dismiss and frown down such practices. 
Remembering what is due to our Christian profession, 
they should beware lest a stumbling-block be laid in 
the way of those who watch for a believer's halting, 
and are happy when he falls. The progress of mis- 
sionaries in foreign lands is often impeded by the 
ungodliness of men called Christians; and care should 
be taken lest similar impediments exist at home. 
Let no man say that his conversation is in heaven, 
while he is manifestly grovelling in the dust. Far 
rather disown the holy name, than drag it down 
into the fearful pit and the miry clay. Be it re- 
membered again, we do not plead for inactivity ; we 
would limit no enterprise which pure religion sanc- 
tions. But neither would we forget for a breath, 
that the man who names Christ's name must adopt 
Christ's holy maxims, or that man is at once deceiv- 
ing the world and betraying the truth of God. Un- 
justly to benefit ourselves at the expense of another, 
is to prove that we have not yet learned God's holy 
law, and still less the Saviour's pure and perfect gos- 
pel. The world-side of our religion should therefore 
be watched with the utmost care; and, amid our daily 
doings in the market-place, it should often be our 
thought, / am a Christian^ and cannot act upon the 
world's unholv maxims. I am a Christian, and must 



THE CHRISTIAN. 121 

love my neighboLir as myself; I must do to others as 
I wisli others to do to me. / am a Christian^ and 
can smile no connivance upon that which nailed m^j 
Redeemer to a tree. No matter though the trans- 
gression be small ; a small sin ruined the world. 
No matter though it be common ; so is eternal ruin. 
No matter though men reckoned upright do it; their 
uprightness is a pretence before Him who looks on 
the heart; and it is because few act upon these plain, 
decided maxims, that Christ's people are still but 
a little flock compared with the teeming myriads of 
world-adoring men. 

And the same maxim should guide us in all re- 
spects as well as in regard to gain. Am I one of the 
merchant princes whose ample stores are crowded 
with youth dependent on me for bread, and helping 
to enrich me by their industry or skill ? Then I am 
to remember my duty to ward off, as far as is in my 
power, all that would corrupt or debase them. Not 
merely a regard to my own interests, but a regard 
to the souls of those to whom I stand related, should 
constrain me to this; and if one among these crowds 
be dishonest or disreputable, I am to take care that his 
contagion do not spread; that neither my property 
on the one hand, nor the souls of my dependants on 
the other, suffer at his hands. I may be deceived, 
but I dare not connive at deception. To raise the 
moral tone, I must give time for personal culture 
and for the training of principle. I must myself set 
the example. I must countenance and encourage 



122 THE CONSECRATION OF GAIN. 

it. Instead of grinding the faces of the dependent, 
I am to do them good in the highest sense of all. 
Instead of amassing wealth by the sacrifice of con- 
sciences and souls, I am to honour all men. — The 
man who acts thus is a benefactor to society: he is 
elevating his fellow-mortals : he is blessed, and made 
a blessing. 

Consecrate all your gains to God — is another 
maxim enforced by Christianity in the Market-place. 
The silver and the gold are his. His is the power 
which enables us to collect them, and they are all 
to be laid, along with ourselves, upon his altar. The 
wisest man our world ever saw said, '' Honour the. 
Lord with thy substance." 

Now, this suggestion touches one of the topics 
which stand most in need of enforcement in an age 
and a communitv like ours. — It were needless to 
tarry to tell how the sin of covetousness is eating 
into the hearts of men, how greedily they run after 
gain, and make haste to be rich. The wrestler's 
arena, or the racer's circus of old, never was crowded 
with moi'e eager or more panting competitors than 
our marts of merchandise now. Nor need we pause 
to tell again what degrading disclosures are made, 
from time to time, and that in the highest spheres, 
regarding the withering effects of this headlong pur- 
suit. In cases not a few, our boasted mercantile 
honour, and our integrity as a nation of merchants, 
have been proved, with painful plainness, to be as 



THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, 123 

weak to restrain man's passion for gold as a thread 
of gossamer to bind a ravening lion. 

Such exposures, then, and such scenes, are well 
fitted to warn us to consecrate all we have to God, 
both in the getting and the using. If the riches of 
the world have the image and superscription of Ccesar, 
the Christian's should bear the stamp of the King of 
kings. There is no scriptural anathema against riches 
— nay, every gift of God is good in itself ; but there 
are countless anathemas against riches acquired by 
fraud, or spent without seeking the direction or the 
blessing of God. The Christian in the Market p^ace 
is thus taught to use the world as not abusing it, 
or not to grasp at what may bite like a serpent and 
sting like an adder. He thus learns to verify what 
was said of Tyre of old, '' Her merchandise and her 
hire shall be holiness to the Lord ; it shall not be 
treasured nor laid up.'' AVhile many never think of 
God — for one solemn thought of him would dash all 
their schemes; while self is the centre, the alpha and 
the omega, the first and the last, of many an adven- 
turer, the Christian will try to gather wealth as his 
God directs, in channels which his God can bless. 

We repeat it; we are permitted to use the world; 
for there is nothing unnatural, or extreme, or ascetic 
in the Word of God. We are permitted to i^se the 
world ; but it is only upon the condition that we do 
not abuse it ; and surelv he abuses it who defers to 
the world more than to God ; who adopts the world's 
maxims, and discards God's ; who grasps the world's 



124 A SCRIPTURAL CONTRAST. 

riches, but is poor toward God ; who trembles at the 
world's frown, but mocks the majesty, the truth, and 
the justice of God. 0, never let the Christian fear 
to be resolutely honest — his God wdll provide. He 
should be encouraged by thinking that, amid all our 
moral distemper, the world is under the control of a 
king who will make his laws respected. Baffled we 
may sometimes be in the world's headlong career; 
but it is well, it is hest^ that w^e should be so. He 
who sees the end from the beginning, and who brings 
order out of confusion, is doing all things well. He 
says : "I have seen the wicked in great power, and 
spreading himself like a green bay- tree : Yet he 
passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, 
but he could not be found." That is one side of the 
picture : the other is, '' Mark the perfect man, and 
behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace/' 

And who has not seen this verified ? Men whose 
hearts the Lord has opened, so that they gave their 
silver and their gold in thousands, tell us that 
the more they give, when it is to the Lord, the 
more are the}^ blessed. That is, '' they cast their 
bread upon the waters, and find it after many days." 
"They honour the Lord with their substance, and 
their barns are filled with plenty." '' They scatter, 
and yet increase." *'The liberal soul is made rich." 
*' They lend unto the Lord," and receive it back with 
usury. 

On the other hand, from time to time the Mighty 
One protests, in his providence, against the head- 



FINANCIAL CRISES. 125 

long and unprincipled pursuit of wealth. What are 
our financial crises, our commercial crashes, our 
bankruptcies in stunning succession and surprising 
amount, what our unemployed labourers, what our 
beggared merchants, but just a providential correc- 
tive to our cupidity? These things occur almost with 
the precision of system. They can be predicted 
like an eclipse; their causes are seen and read of all 
men ; and yet, unwarned and untaught, they make 
haste to be rich, till airy structures and nominal 
treasures melt away into air, leaving only poverty, 
perhaps shame and disgrace, as their residuum. The 
God who has, with a wisdom as unvarying as it is 
profound, made sin self-corrective, thus vindicates 
his own laws. Were his Sabbaths observed, our 
production would be less, and stagnation prevented. 
Were our merchandise holiness to the Lord, our 
periodical gluts would be prevented by wiser mea- 
sures than now prevail. Godliness would thus be 
great gain. The widow's cruse and barrel would be 
a better portion, because blessed by God, than the 
riches which, ever on the vnng, are ever fluttering for 
their flight. * 

* *'We state it as our opinion, that thoiijxh tlic wliole business of the 
world were in tlie hands of men tliorou^ldy Christianized, and who, rating 
wealth according to its real dimensions on the high scale of eternity, were 
chastened out of all their idolatrous regards to it; yet would trade, in 
these circumstances, be carried to the extreme limit of its being really pro- 
ductive or desirable. An afiection for riches beyond what Clnistianity 
prescribes, is not essential to any extension of commerce that is at all 
valu;ible or legitimate; and in oi)])osition to the maxim that the spirit of 
entennise is the soul of commercial prosperity, do we hold that "t is t)ie 
excess of this spirit beyond the moderation of the New Testament, hich, 



126 ABRAHAM AND LOT. 

It is thus, then, that God over all proves, to our 
sad experience, that we forsake our own mercies by 
forgetting Him in the Market-place — but take an 
example. Abraham and Lot his nephew, are in 
their tents near Bethel. A strife arises between their 
herdsmen, because the grazing grounds were not suffi- 
ciently ample for the herds and flocks of both. But 
Abraham, the man of peace, disliked contention; 
and though he was the elder, he gave the younger 
his choice of the country, that they might separate 
without strife. With primitive simplicity, but also 
with true greatness of soul, he said, ''If thou wilt 
take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or 
if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to 
the left/' 

Lot accordingly chose. Captivated by the rich 
pastures of the valley of the Jordan, he selected 
them. His eye was fixed only on what was good 
for his herds ; it was Eastern wealth, in short, which 
attracted the nephew of Abraham. He did not 
think of the character of those who dwelt where he 
was to dwell; and in his hot pursuit of riches, he 
fared exactly as those who do as he did are faring 
still. The inhabitants of that garden-like valley 
were "wicked exceedingly," but Lot threw himself 
among them without forethought, and as the result, 



pressing on the natural boundaries of trade, is sure at length to visit 
every country where it operates with the record of all those calamities 
which, in the shape of beggared capitalists and unemployed operatives, 
and dreary intervals of bankruptcy and alarm, are observed to follow a 
seasor of overdone speculation." — Dr. Chalmers. 



EVIL COMMUNICATIONS. 127 

his righteous soul was vexed from day to day. 
Their ''grievous sins" harassed him; and if we may 
judge from his own conduct, he did not escape con- 
tamination. He had at last to haste and flee for hia 
life, lest he should perish in the common overthrow. 
And when was it otherwise? Who ever tasted, 
touched, or handled what pollutes, and yet continued 
pure? Who ever threw in their lot with godless 
men, without incurring the risk of sharing their 
doom? Do not worldly engrossments steal the 
heart from God? When we have goods laid up 
for many days, is it not our instant thought, unless 
a double portion of grace be sought, that we are less 
dependent now^ on the Author of every good and 
perfect gift? The soul thus withers and pines; and 
if a child of God escape, it is as Lot did from Sodom 
— " so as by fire." Just as a dislocated limb gives 
pain to the body, or just as one member wrenched 
by violence from the rest makes the whole physical 
frame quake and quiver, the dislocation of a single 
precept of God does violence to our moral nature. 
It has been often noticed that the men who are de- 
prived, by whatsoever cause, of the Sabbath rest, 
soon become the most degraded in a community, 
they have perished sometimes by their own right 
hand; and the remark may be generalized so fis to 
include all the laws among the Ten. The man who 
runs greedily after gain and forgets to consecrate it 
to God, is thereby self- degraded, and sclf-ruincd in 
the ond. 



128 corxsELS. 

But perhaps all that ^^e have argued might have 
been more briefly and more emphatically urged in 
a few words: ^^ They first gave themselves to the 
Lord.'^^ That is the true order of procedure on 
the part of Christian men, and that is the certain 
prelude to heavenly guidance. All that we have 
will be dedicated to the Great Proprietor, if we have 
first learned, as the Spirit teaches, to *' present our 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God/' 

TTere it our object to exhaust this subject, instead 
of merely offering some general counsels, we should 
now proceed to other aspects of the Christian in the 
Market-place — that place where temptations are so 
rife, because the world's current is at the strongest. 
We might refer to the necessity of excluding the 
engrossments of the Market-place from our hours 
of relaxation or our home duties, and press such 
examples as that of Him who left it as a counsel to 
others, that, they should leave all thoughts of busi- 
ness in their counting-house on Saturday, till their 
return on Monday. — But enough has been said for 
our purpose. And now, let it not be forgotten that 
all we plead for has been actually done in the Mar- 
ket-place by not a few. We urge nothing Utopian, 
nothing beyond what is written in the Word of God. 
A man can be both a student of the Bible, so as to 
regulate his business by its maxims, and yet prosper, 

2 Cor. viiL 2. 



THE ONLY RULE. 129 

as far as any Christian can care for prosperity ; and 
that is proved by many examples. If a man, in- 
deed, supposes that his life consists in the abun- 
dance that he has, or that the kingdom of God is 
meat and drink, then the Bible will be discarded ; 
another god than its will be worshipped. But if it 
be the rooted conviction of a soul, that it can be rich 
only in so far as it enjoys the blessing of Jehovah, 
His word wull be found at once a pleasant and a pro- 
fitable guide. And even though poverty may assail 
us for abiding by God's simple truth, we must still 
abide by it. Man lives not by bread alone, but by 
every word which proceeds from the mouth of God; 
and though that maxim may provoke a sinile from 
the devotees of the world, it is the maxim of eternal 
wisdom notwithstanding. Some whose life was spent 
in the place of business, of care and speculation, have 
left it upon record, that such a maxim is the only 
remedy for the woes of a groaning world. 

We know that men cannot live upon their knees, 
especially in the market-place; but w^e also know 
that, in the most crowded mart, the way to tlie thi'one 
is open, if we have acquired a taste for walking in 
it. Have we not found some, and these among the 
busiest of men, who knew how to retreat into the 
secret place of the Most High's pavilion, so as there 
to feel the truth of his promise, '^ My people shall 
dwell in quiet resting-places and peaceable habita- 
tions?" Have they not found a recess for commu- 
nion with God, where no eye saw, and no ear heard, 



130 THE POWER OF GRACE. 

but his ? If there be first a willing mind, a way to 
the throne will be found, even in the Market-place, 
and they who find it are blessed. 

Amid .all this, we do not forget the difficulties of 
a merchant's sphere, in an age so bent upon amassing 
as ours. We are not unfamiliar with his anxieties, 
his cares, and crosses — crosses which often come upon 
him mainly because he would set the Lord before 
him. But just the more on that account, and surely 
not the less, do we urge him to carry the Lamp of 
Life. On the one hand, if these anxieties and cares 
drive us from our steadfastness, and if God be left 
out of sight, will that diminish our cares? On the 
other hand, if we hold fast our integrity, is it to be 
feared that we shall be put to shame at last? Nay, 
all that we plead for hasheen done: the grace of God 
can accoinplish it, and more. There have been men 
surrounded with many cares, who yet served the Lord 
amid them all. They found that Christianity in the 
Market-place is as much provided for, as Christi- 
anity in the place where prayer is wont to be made. 
All that was needed was to seek the God and the 
grace of Christianity^ ; they sought Him, and they 
triumphed. Cheered by the words, '* Thou hast a 
few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their 
garments," they held fast their integrity as drowning 
men cling to the cable which is cast for their rescue; 
and in holding it fast, they secured the heritage which 
the gold of Ophir could not buy. 

It will readily be believed that, in a nation signa- 

I 



STEADFASTNESS. 131 

lized like ours by commercial enterprise find mer- 
cantile activity, some have been found among our 
merchant princes whose proceedings have been pre- 
sided over by purest Christian principle. If multi- 
tudes have sacrificed rather to Mammon than to the 
Holy One and the Just, some, on the other hand, 
have held fast their integrity, and sought to keep 
' themselves *' unspotted from the world."- — Among 
those who belong to the class who have thus exem- 
plified the loftiest Christian principle in the Market- 
place, there are few whose name and memorial 
stand higher among men than the late Joseph 
Hardcastle of London. Early impressed with reli- 
gion in its living and energetic form, he made it 
his guide and close companion through life. The 
Scriptures were to him the supreme and sovereigu 
standard. He was led by their light to the Saviour 
of the lost, and, constrained by his love, he rejoiced 
in every opportunity for promoting His cause and 
glory. A life of dependence on his Redeemer was 
only another name for personal holiness ; and to per- 
sonal holiness he added abilities of a superior order, 
which appeared at once in the world-wide business 
which he conducted as a merchant, and the efforts 
of a directly religious nature which he put forth. 
Among the objects to which Hardcastle was devoted, 
the London Missionary Society was perhap'=5 the chief. 
In the capacity of its treasurer, he laboured for many 
years with zeal in the service of Him who has the 
heathen for his heritage. To the duties of that oftiee 



ll 



132 JOSEPH IIARDCASTLE. 

he l)-vOiight the same sagacity and sourxdness of view, 
the saiue unbending uprightness and lofty integrity, 
^vhich signalized him as a member of the greatest 
mercantile community in the world. Even amid the 
contentions of debate, Hardcastle Avas calm and gen- 
tle: his Christianized nature raised him above the 
influences of those shocks which ruffle and discom- 
pose more common minds; and though nothing could 
ever sway him to act against truth and principle, his 
mildness and benignity rendered him the friend of all. 

But not merely were Hardcastle' s time and ener- 
gies thus largely devoted to the Saviour's cause. 
His ample liberalities from year to year, " entitled 
him to the rank of the first pecuniary benefactor of 
the London Missionary Society." In short, faith un- 
feigned was the basis of what be did, whether in the 
Market-place or amid scenes whose duties appear to 
some to be incompatible with the assiduities of busi- 
ness. With commercial relations which touched the 
ends of the earth, Hardcastle spread his influence 
for good as widely as his merchandise. He proved 
by his example that it is possible to be at once 
active in business, and serving the Lord; and our 
commercial enterprize would rest upon a more solid 
basis, or be more richly fraught with blessings, were 
that godliness which is the only solid foundation of 
true dignity and completeness of character cultivated 
by all, as it was by Joseph Hardcastle. 

But his own history was spoken, and his principles 
were described by himself, in some of the last sen- 



THE DYING BELTT.VER. 133 

tences whicli he ever uttered. To illustrate these, 
the following selections may suffice : — 

" Lord Jesus, thou hast said, ' He that believeth 
in me shall never die; and he that bellevetli, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live/ I believe this ; I 
believe I shall never know what death is, but pass 
into life/' — This is the triumph of faith. 

" Thou hast said, ' Him that cometh to me, I will 
in no wise cast out/ I come to thee ; thou wilt not 
cast me out.'' — This is God honoured, and man 
made happy. 

" Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all 
the days of my life, and I am going to dwell in the 
house of the Lord for ever. I am infinitely indebted 
to him for his conduct of me from infancy to the end 
of my life. He took me by the hand in a wonderful 
manner, and brought me into connection with the 
excellent of the earth. Most gracious God, I com- 
mit my children to thee, and I charge them to walk 
in thy fear and love/' — This is the death of the 
righteous. 

" He has drawn me wdth the cords of mercy from 
my earliest days. He gave me very early impres- 
sions of religion, and enabled me to devote myself to 
him in early life ; and this God is my God for ever 
and ever — for ever and ever. I said to him when I 
was a young man, ►' Thou shalt guide me by thy 
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.' ' Whom 
have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon 
earth whom I desire besides thee.' " 



134. THE DYING PARENT. 

'' No principle can enter the mind so sublime as 
the doctrine of the cross, which, with infinite majesty, 
speaks peace in heaven, on earth, and throughout the 
universe. Let every one of my children glor}' in the 
cross of salvation — it is the power of God to every 
one that belie veth. The power of God ; what feeble 
ideas do I attach to such expressions !'' 

'^ I am, iu some respects, like the old patriarch 
Jacob, on his dying bed, with all his sons about him. 
Live in love, and the God of love will be with you. 
This is my last farewell ; this is our last interview 
till we meet in a better world. My flesh and heart 
are failing. I hope I have not been deceiving my- 
self. My child on f-eek for an interest in Christ — 
seek for an intei^^l: in Christ. I earnestly exhort you 
to be decided, and to be very useful. He is your 
best friend : manifest your regard for him to the 
world ; avow your attachment ; be not ashamed of 
him; he is the glory and the ornament of tlie uni- 
verse.'' 

" I hope I shall be favoured, when my spirit is 
departing, with some intimations of approaching 
glory. I will trust in him — I will trust in him. In 
the meantime, I possess a sweet peace, calm and 
undistiu'bed. I will go to God, my exceeding joy, 
as the psalmist says. It is an awful thing for a 
human spirit, deeply depraved as it is, to appear 
before the tribunal of so mighty a Being. He placeth 
no trust in his servants ; the heavens are not clean in 
his sight.'' 



ALMIGHTY GRACE. 13 > 

" If I am to live, ^ I welcome life, and thank its 
Giver ; if I am to die, I welcome death, and thank 
its Conqueror. If I have a choice, I v/ould rather 
depart and be with Christ, which is far better." 

" My last act of faith I wish to be to take the 
work of Jesus, as the high priest did when he en- 
tered within the vail ; and when I have passed the 
vail, to appear with it before the throne/' 

^* I have just finished my course ; I hope also I 
may say, ' I have fought the good fight, I have kept 
the faith; and henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, will give me at that day.' " 

" Fathei', into thy hands I commend my spirit. 
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit when it leaves tljo 
body : thou hast redeemed it — I have waited for tli y 
salvation." 

— There is much in the life of men whose home is 
chiefly in the Market-place, to deaden and secularize 
their spirits : but examples like that of Hardcastle 
tell that grace is almighty even there — even there, 
were men to honour God, he would honour them. 
It would be made manifest to all, that even the life 
of a merchant prince may be spent in the ways oi 
God, and conduct to his eternal home. 

♦ Mr. Hardciistledied in his sixtv-scventh year. 



136 

CHAPTER Y. 

RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE CONTINUED. 

Enough has been said to show that there is no in- 
congruity between the religion of Jesus and the 
most comprehensive enterprise, if that entei^prise be 
characterised by wisdom, as well as extent. The 
Bible may reign in the counting-house, as well as in 
the church ; nay, where its power is felt at all, its 
most signal triumphs are not found amid the scenes 
where only the Omniscient is our witness, but amid 
those public proceedings where danger is rife, because 
the cuiTent of the world sets in against the soul 
at once with the greatest rapidity and the greatest 
volume. By example after example, it is proved, 
both in the Word and the providence of God, that 
His truth embodies the religion of activity. One 
man, for example, is raised up to take possession 
of the promised land. He has seven nations to 
conquer, as well as a numerous people to guide, and 
amid the manifold engrossments of that position, 
how is Joshua employed? Had he adopted the 
maxims merely of the world, he would have drawn 
the sword, he would have thrown away the scabbard, 
and in the common language of mortal boasting, he 
would have determined t- conquer or die. But the 
first sword which Joshua irew was the sword of the 
Spirit, which is the AVord of God. The verse which 



JOSHUA DAVID. 137 

directed his steps was this, '^ Thou slialt meditate on 
this book day and night .... for then thou shalt 
make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have 
good success." That was the secret of Joshua's vic- 
tories — amid the cares of a camp, he had his God to 
guide him. 

And the man after God's own heart acted in the 
same spirit. Monarch as he was, and compassed 
about with all the cares of a kingdom, David made 
the Word of God a lamp to his path. He could pic- 
ture no greater self-deception than to suppose that 
man can find a better guide in difficulty than God — • 
a better Counsellor in doubt — a better Defence in 
dangei'. He could not even invent a more flagrant 
kind of folly than to set aside the wisdom of God, 
and prefer the wisdom of man ; to adopt some human 
device for remedying man's ills, for soothing man's 
sorrows or lifting him from his degradation, while 
we despise the sovereign specific of the eternal God. 
The climax of all that is irrational is found in super- 
seding God's revealed will, and substituting for it the 
opinions, the speculations, the dreams of mortal man. 
David, therefore, placed the Word of God upon his 
throne beside him. Ghiided by it, the king was stead- 
fast and unmoveable : Forsaking it, he became one 
of the chief of sinners; he siillijJ one of the fairest 
names. 

Or turning from inspired men, to those who had to 
spread the sacred page before them, and pray to God 
to shed light upon it, we may glance at the man 



J 38 LUTHER. 

whom God raised up, about three hundred years ago, 
to emancipate a large portion of Europe from Popery, 
that dark superstition which ever crushes man to 
the dust. Luther stands alone before the crowned, 
the mitred, and the lordly. A bigoted emperor 
holds that solitary man's life in his hand ; and had 
he doomed him to die upon the spot, millions would 
have rushed to applaud him for the deed. "Recant,'' 
that is, deny the Word of God, was in substance the 
demand made from Luther; and was the demand 
conceded ? Nay ; the Bible was to him something 
better than a collection of sjdlables and words. The 
Spirit had made it a power, a life, a soul to that man's 
soul ; and, " I cannot recant, so help me God," was 
in substance his reply to the crowned, and the lordly 
before him. 

But there is a glare and a grandeur about eases 
such as these, which may dazzle yet more than in- 
struct. Let us pass then to a different scene, and 
seek some abode of poverty. AVe are, perhaps, 
afraid to enter, so repulsive, or unpleasing is all that 
meets the eye. In that rude home, which every wind 
of heaven can penetrate, we find a dying one. Per- 
haps for a quarter of a century, she has been the 
inmate of that abode ; for all that time, she may 
have had no hand but the hand of God, and of charity, 
to feed her. What, then, is it that has sustained her 
spirit, amid trials which we almost shudder to see? 
She has lived, and is now preparing to die, upon the 
Word of her God. She is strong in the strength 



MERCANTILE MANIA. 139 

wliicli it supplies, and the home which lociks so cheer- 
less to others, has been to hci' a home of hymns and 
of rejoicing. The God of the Bible has made her glad 
in the house of her pilgrimage by means of his Word. 
She has learned to regard it as God himself does ; 
and it is visibly magnified in the effects which it 
thus produces in souls by nature weak, wavering, 
and ungodly. 

But we have not nearly exhausted the illustrations 
of the power of truth in the Market-place. We 
have looked at some proofs of its power where it is 
honoured and obeyed: let us now glance at some of 
the results of neglecting it. If some men are of 
opinion that their main business upon earth is to 
"buy and sell, and get gain;" the Holy One has, 
on the other hand, made it plain that there is another 
God besides " the Mammon of unrighteousness.'* 

We have referred to the crashes, and the failures, 
the gluts and stagnations which occur in trade, with 
a periodicity which can almost be calculated — they 
can at least be easily foreseen as they approach. 
The adventurous "traffickers," are sometimes seized 
with a mania which turns the counting-house into a 
gambler's den, involving results and disasters from 
wdiicli the most judicious can with difficulty escape; 
so powerful is the current, so ingulfing the suction. 
Let us glance at some of these seasons. 

And the first which we mention is, the mania for 
dealing in Tulips, which engrossed even so c;^dm and 
sedate a people as the Dutch, about two centuries ago. 



140 THE TULIP MARTS OF HOLLAND. 

It began about the year 1634, and, like a violent 
epidemic, it seized upon all classes of the community, 
leading to disasters and misery such as the records 
of commerce, or of bankruptcies, can scarcely parallel. 
In their " haste to be rich," one of the most temper- 
ate and self-possessed of all the nations of Europe 
rushed upon a ruin which affected thousands, and 
plunged multitudes into penury for life. In the year 
1636, Tulip Marts had been established at Amster- 
dam, at Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, and other 
towns in Holland.* As happens in all gambling 
transactions many were speedily enriched. Their 
fortunes, it has been said, rose like exhalations from 
the earth, but in many cases they vanished as speedily. 
Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, foot- 
men, maid-servants, even chimney sweeps — all caught 
the fever for tulips and gold. Houses and lands 
were either sold for what they would bring in the 
market, or pledged, and bartered, that men might 
get possession of the coveted bulb or blossom. Amid 
these things, the prices of food, and other necessaries 
of life, rose to an unprecedented extent ; and so com- 
plex, so ramified and pervasive did the tulip trade 
become, that special laws were passed to regulate it; 
special functionaries were appointed to direct it ; in a 
word, amid the activities of Holland, then perhaps 
the foremost nation in the commercial world, a frail, 
ephemeral flower became literally the representative 



< 



See Mercantile Morals by Rev. W. H. Van Doren, chap. I?. 



THE SHADOW GRASPED. 



14J 



of man's wealth, or the object on which the hearts 
of thousands doated. 

Nor were these negotiations confined to the great 
central emporiums. Every village had its market- 
place for tulips ; festive meetings were held when 
sales w^ere effected ; and the universal favourite — a 
tulip, was the constant decorator of such festivities. 
The learned and the ignorant, the cautious and the 
eager, men of all classes and all temperaments, were 
infected; it seemed as if the commerce of the world 
were henceforth to run in one exclusive channel — 
the sale and the purchase of tulips. The eage.Mcss 
with which men embarked in these wild speculations 
ma}^ be best explained by a statement of simple 
facts.* Property to the value of 100,000 florins-[- 
was invested in the purchase of a few roots. One 
kind of tulip, the Admiral Leifken^ was reckoned 
worth 4,400 florins. A Semper Augustus was deemed 
cheap, if purchased for 5,500 florins. At one period 
there were only two roots of that rare species in Hol- 
land ; and so intense was the passion to possess them, 
that a merchant offered twelve acres of building lots 
for one of them, which was at Haarlem, while its 
neighbour of Amsterdam was purchased for 4, GOO 
florins, a carriage, a span of grey horses, J and a 
complete suit of harness. A Viceroy was worth 3000 
florins. An Adndrdl Vonder Eyk was rated at 1,2G0 



* See IMercjintilc ^[orality, chap. iv. 

t The Dutcli florin is wortli about two shilliiip^s, 

X A spun of horses means a team or pair of ma dies for a carriuije. 



142 THE SUBSTANCE THROWN AWAY. 

florins ; and the Avhole were sold by weight as care* 
fully as jewel merchants weigh the diamond. But to 
name no more, there was a single root which cost two 
lasts of wheat, and four of rye; four fat oxen, eight fat 
swine, and twelve fat sheep; two hogsheads of wine, 
and four tuns of beer; two tons of butter, one thousand 
pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes, and 
a silver drinking cup, valued in all at 2.560 florins. 

Such is a glimpse of the tulip mania — such the 
effect of man^s extraordinary haste to be rich — such 
the condition into which men proverbial for their 
sobriety of judgment were precipitated, when they 
pushed their speculations beyond their legitimate 
channels. 

And what was the result? How did a passion so 
extraordinary affect those who had been impelled by 
its power? The bubble burst at length, and though 
a fierce tornado had swept over Holkmd, the devas- 
tation could scarcely have been more complete. The 
hopes which had been so unnaturally inflated began 
to collapse. Panic seized upon the speculators, and 
banla-uptcy followed panic, as rapidly as the house 
which is built of cards is demolished by a blow\ It 
soon appeared that tulips were neither gold, nor 
houses, nor lands ; neither bread for the hungry, nor 
clothing for the naked, nor a home for the friendless; 
and the worthlessness of the flower in itself, became 
the emblem of the delusions which it had fostered. 
Every town in Holland felt the blow. Multitudes 
were precipitated into poverty, at least, their only 



i 



THE ONLY SAFE GUIDE. 143 

possessions consisted in a few bulbs — the representa- 
tions at once of the speculator's thoughtlessness and 
his woe. The result of the folly was now manifest, 
and the madness of what was nothing but gambling, 
showed its bitter fi'uits. Merchants and their fami- 
lies who had lived all their lives in independence 
and luxury, were reduced to beggary by this mania 
for gold. 

Amid these calamities, the help of man was found 
to be signally vain, and those who had forgotten 
to take the Bible into the Counting-house, and the 
Market-place, were left to reap as they had sowed. 
Every effort was made to arrest the tide of ruin. Law 
was appealed to. The governing power of the na- 
tion was addressed, but all in vain. The gourd had 
withered, the refage of lies had fallen, and not a few 
were buried in the ruins. The trade of Holland was 
prostrated for a time, and some of its merchant 
princes never recovered from the shock. 

It was by such a mercantile crash, then, that He 
who rules among the nations protested against the 
foil}', or the sin of such gambling. It was proved, 
. upon a national scale, that men cannot trample on 
the wisdom which comes from above, and prosper ; 
and over the whole transaction, the eye of faith can 
read many a text inscribed in letters of light , we learn 
how much Commerce would be aided throughout her 
extensive empire, were her measures regulated by 
the mind, and directed to the objects of God. " He 
that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent." 



144 THE REAL SOURCE OF WEALTH. 

" Trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, 
who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." *' Ye 
shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete- 
yard, in weight, and in measure." " By humility 
and the fear of the Lord, are riches, and honour, and 
life." '• Let your conversation be without covetous- 
ness, and be content with such things as ye have ; 
for He hath said, ' I will never leave thee nor for- 
sake thee.' " — These and many other passages of 
the Word, proclaim the folly of extinguishing the 
lamp, and yet hoping to Avalk in the light. He who 
shall really prosper in such a path, will be the first 
in all the world's history; but his prosperity will 
rest upon the ruins of truth, and justice — of all that 
is pure, and lovely, and of good report. 

But this appears after all, to have been a mere 
hallucination. It may be reckoned the dictate of 
capricious fashion, rather than a manifestation of the 
true mercantile spirit. Let us turn, then, to another 
illustration, and we find it ready in the Mississippi 
Scheme of France, which was begun in 1716, and 
continued till 4723. Of all the wild speculations 
which have first duped and then ruined men, this 
ranks among the foremost. It was projected by a 
man who spent an ample fortune by his prodigality, 
and then adopted a gambler's life, the last resort 
of manv a fallen spirit. He first ruined a young 
English lady and then slew her brother in a duel, 
for which he was obliged to flee from his native 
countrv. Amsterdam, Venice, and Genoa, became 



THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 145 

in succession his asylum. From each of these, 
however, he was banished as a dangerous adven- 
turer; and after fourteen years of friendless wan- 
dering, he at last secured the patronage of the 
Duke of Orleans, while Regent of France, about the 
year 1716. 

Such was the unprincipled and profligate man 
employed to launch the Mississippi Scheme. He 
began his career in Paris by establishing a bank, 
which aided in restoring the drooping commerce of 
France to some measure of activity. Success in 
one enterprize prepared the way for another, and 
Law devised the scheme which has given such bad 
notoriety to his name, and was the occasion of a 
ruin so wide- spread that only Omniscience knows it, 
A French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi 
occupied lands which were supposed to teem with 
gold ; and, on that supposition, men who knew of no 
better riches than those of earth, rushed into a wild 
and visionary scheme. The Regent sanctioned the 
undertaking, and notes were issued to the amount of 
one thousand millions of liv^es.* One hundred and 
twenty per cent of profit were promised upon all 
investments ; and the baseless proposal so captivated 
men who were willingly fascinated, that at least 
three hundred thousand applications were made for 
fifty thousand shares. The titled, from the riglit 
hand of royalty downward, engaged in the scramble; 



* A livre is equal to about lO^d. English. 
K 



146 THE POWER OF PASSION. 

and tlieir equipages blocked up the streets from day 
to day, as they waited in feverish anxiety to know 
the result of their application for a chance of sharing 
in the fabulous wealth. — It is known that when one 
maniac has committed suicide in any particinar way — 
for example, by precipitation from the summit of a 
tower — others morbidly follow his example; and one 
is irresistibly reminded of that development of mania 
while tracing the history of the Mississippi Scheme. 

But, after all, it was still only in its infancy. The 
Regent created three hundred thousand additional 
shares;* and so grasping were even the coroneted 
gamblers of Pans, that three times that number 
would have been purchased had the scheme been 
extended so far. The pressure for shares became so 
great, that a number of persons were crushed to 
death in the crowd. Property suddenly rose in 
Talue, till it was worth twelve or fifteen times as 
much as it had been a brief period before; and so 
unwearied were these devotees of Mammon, that the 
streets had to be cleared at night by the soldiery. 
For a time, even the gaieties of Paris v/ere suspended ; 
and all the energies, the earnestness, and ardour of its 
people, were turned into one absorbing channel — the 
passion for gold lying buried, they believed, in the 
lands around the mouth of the Mississippi! 

So ceaseless was the murmur of these speculators, 
and so loud, that the Chancellor of Paris, whose 

* See Mercantile Morals, chap, iv 



CORONETED GAMBLERS. 147 

court was in the neighbourhood of the bank, could 
not hear the adv^ocates as they pled. About five hun- 
dred pavilions were in consequence erected at some 
distance, for conducting the business. The ingulf- 
ing tide rolled on. Peers and peeresses continued 
among the suitors for Mississippi stock, and some- 
times stood for six hours in succession, waiting for 
an interview with an agent. In truth, all classes 
were seized with a mania similar to that which reigns 
paramount in the mind of a gambler, and which often 
goads him on to ruin. Amid the excitement, society 
became more and more distempered. The ignoble, 
who had become suddenly rich, purchased alliances 
with the titled. Robberies and murders took place, 
and a Count D'Horn was tried and condemned to be 
broken on the wheel for one of these deeds of blood. 
Such was the influx of strangers into Paris, that 
houses could not be found for their accommodation. 
Tents and stables were transmuted into dwelling- 
houses, and an artificial prosperity was produced, 
which quadrupled the cost of some articles. In a 
word, it appeared that Louis XIV. had been suc- 
ceeded by Midas, a prince who turned all that he 
touched into gold. 

But this bubble also burst. The scheme was too 
baseless, and the prosperit}^ too artificial to last ; and 
again it was seen in' one of the greatest nations of 
the earth, that " he who makes haste to be 7'ich 
shall not be innocent,'^ as he certainly is not safe. 
To all the golden visions of France there succeeded 



148 THE REACTION. 

a period of confusion, of bankiiiptcies, of beggary 
and ruin, deep and piteous in proportion as the ex- 
citement had been hi eh. Those who were trembliuo: 
on the verge of ruin, or actually precipitated into it, 
surrounded the palace of the Eegent, and holding up 
the worthless bills of Law, which were now all the 
property they possessed, exclaimed against the in- 
justice with the vehemence of beggared men. The 
projector of the scheme was exiled to Pontoise. A 
few realized wealth by the speculation, but it is com- 
puted that millions were utterly beggared : many 
^' laid violent hands upon themselves, and sought a 
doubtful refuge in the grave.'' 

And thus, by another providence, did the only 
wise God protest against the burning passion for 
gold which had eaten into the souls of multitudes. 
Men 

" Abrogate as roundly as they may. 
The toral ordinance and ^vill of God,** 

but in spite of their attempts, he accomplishes all his 
purposes, and all his pleasure stands. He who loves 
silver shall not be satisfied with it. He who says to 
the fine gold, '• Be thou my confidence," sooner or 
later finds that he has pierced himself through with 
many sorrows. Wherever the will of God is violated 
by nations or by individuals, a day of retribution 
comes, as surely as rivers which have burst their 
banks carry devastation wherever they rush. 

It is well known that the channel of the Po. as it 
approaches its embochure, is considerably elevated 



THE SOUTH SKA RUBBLE. 149 

above the surrounding country. The earth which it 
washes down from the Alps is gradually deposited 
where the river runs more slowly. The banks, in 
consequence, require to be periodically elevated ; and 
were that neglected, the river would soon sweep them 
all away, and render some of the most fertile portions 
of Italy a wide and noxious marsh, a focus of mala- 
ria and fever. Now, it is the same wherever man's 
cupidity has thrown up artificial mounds in Com- 
merce. They ai^e always attended with danger, and 
sooner or later they are swept away. It is the sure 
decree of God : ^' He that loves silver shall not be 
satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundance 
with increase.'^ 

One such illustration may suffice for all : but there 
is another memorable Scheme to which it seems 
proper to refer — that which is known in this country 
as the South Sea Bubble. About the beginning of 
last century, an opinion generally prevailed that 
the wealth of South America was exhaustless. A 
privileged Company to trade with it was accord- 
ingly formed, and though the genius of the French 
and the English are widely different, a passion for 
speculation and gold seized upon our countrymen, as 
violent and absorbing as that which appeared in con- 
nection with Ihc jNIIssissIppi Scheme of France. By 
various devices, In which the principles of the Word 
of God wereoutrngcd, tlie managers of the South J^c-i 
Scheme excited expectations of the most visions: v 
kind. The mania seized upon the nation through 



150 DELUSIONS BTXIETED. 

all its T^-'-'-lers. The stock of the Company rose till 
it was tragedy bought at a premium of 1000 per 
cent. Catching the p-eneral spirit, joint-stock com- 
panies sprang up everywhere as rapidly as the 
Prophet's gourd; and so willing were men to be 
deceived, that schemes which should have been put 
down on their first appearance were eagerly em- 
braced. One of these was denominated, " A Com- 
pany for carrying on an Undertaking of Great Ad- 
vantage, but nobody to know what it is ;''^ and yet 
Englishmen, proverbially calculating and cautious 
in their financial affairs, actually embarked in that 
transparent deception, like men infatuated by their 
haste to be rich. The projector of the schem.e 
asked a deposit of £2 on each share of £100. and 
the promised return was £100 per annum. On the 
first day of his scheme he received about 1000 
deposits, or nearly £2000. and with that sum he 
immediately and for ever disappeared. In this man- 
ner, the original South Sea Scheme branched out into 
eighty- seven cognate speculations, each of which was 
eventually a fountain of misery to multitudes. 

The following sentences graphically tell the state 
of London and this kingdom at the period refenx-d 
to : — '• From morning till evening, 'Change Alley 
was filled to overflowing with one dense nioving 
mass of living beings, composed of the most incon- 
gruous materials, and in all things, save the mad 



* See Dr. Boardman's " Bible in the Counting-House," p. 132. 



THE RULING PASSION. 151 

pursuit wherein they were employed, utterly opposed 
in their principles and feelings, and far asunder in 
their stations of life and the professions which they 
followed. Statesmen and clei'gynien deserted their 
high stations to enter upon this grand theatre of 
speculation and gambling ; and churchmen and dis- 
senters left their fierce disputes, and forgot their 
wranglings upon church government, in this deep 
and hazardous game they were playing for worldly 
treasures, and for riches which, even if won, were 
liable to disappear within the hour of their creation. 
Whigs and Tories buried their weapons of political 
warfare, discarded party animosities, and mingled 
together in kind and friendly intercourse, each 
exulting as their stocks advanced in price, and mur- 
muring dissatisfaction and disappointment w^hen 
fonune frowned upon their wild operations ; and 
lawyers, physicians, merchants, and tradesmen, for- 
sook their employments, neglected their business, 
and disregarded their engagements, to whirl giddily 
along with the swollen stream, to be at last in- 
gulfed in the wide sea of bankruptcy. Men of the 
highest rank were deeply engaged in stock -jobbing 
transactions ; and investments in the most worthless 
bubbles of the age v.ere made by them in heavy 
sums, and without the least hesitation or previous 
inquiry. Females niixed with the crowd, and, for- 
getting the stations and employments which nature 
had litted them to adorn, dealt boldly and extensively 
m the bubbles that rose before them, and, like those 



152 THE FOLLY OF MAn's WISDOM. 

by whom they were surrounded, rose from poverty 
to wealth, and from that were thrust down to beg- 
gary and want, and all in one short week, and 
perhaps before the evening which terminated the 
first day of their speculations. Ladies of high rank^ 
regardless of every appearance of dignity, and 
blinded by the prevailing infatuation, drove to the 
shops of their milliners and haberdashers, and there 
met stockbrokers whom they regularly employed, 
and through whom extensive sales were daily nego- 
tiated. In the midst of the excitement, all distinc- 
tions of party and religion, circumstances and cha- 
racter, were swallowed up. Bubbles were blown 
into existence on every hand, and stocks of every 
conceivable name, nature, and description, were 
issued to an incredible extent.''* 

But this also came to an end ; and disasters fol- 
lowed which rent society like an earthquake. The 
leaders in the scheme were consigned to prison, 
or compelled to seek refuge in exile ; while their 
deluded victims were left amid poverty, and its atten- 
dant woe, to gather the native fruit of the thorns and 
the thistles, from which they had expected grapes and 
figs. It was miserable comfort to reflect, that their 
own baseless expectations had abetted the delusion, 
and made the ruin complete. 

And such is another illustration of the effects which 
follow the infatuation of putting Mammon in the place 

* HunVs AferchanVs Magazine, Quotecl in Boardman's "Bible in the 
Countin[?-H()usc." 



I 



RESULTS. 153 

of God, or delivering up the whole soul to the pur- 
suit of what the Holy One declares to be unsatisfying 
as a dream. It is thus that he warns men, in his 
providence, against that lust of speculation, which is 
often as ruinous as the lust of power, or any passion 
which drives men headlong upon misery. 

The very titles of some of the schemes w^hich were 
projected at the period now referred lo, stamp them 
with infatuation. The nation had become an aggre- 
gate of gamblers, and the following are some of the 
stakes : — 

A Company for Increasing Children's Fortunes. 

A Company for Furnishing Funerals in any part of Great 
Britain. 

A Company, already mentioned, for carrying on an Under- 
taking of Great Advantage; but nobody to know what 
it is. 

A Company for Making Looking-Glasses. Capital, £2,000,000. 

A Company for Improving Malt Liquors. Capital, £4,000,000. 

A Company for Insuring all Masters and Mistresses against 
Losses by Servants. Capital, £3,000,000. 

A Company for Importing Walnut Trees. Capital, £2,000,000. 

A Company for Erecting Hospitals for Illegitimate Children. 
Capital, £2,000,000. 

A Company for Erecting Loan-Offices. Capital, £2,000,000. 

— But we need not enumerate more. In that scram- 
ble for riches, reason appears to have been befooled. 
Departing from the law of God, men were left to star- 
vation : '' They that did feed delicately, are desolate 
in the streets : they that were brought up in scarlet, 
embrace dunghills." - What though one, or tw^o, or 
a few realized wealth, and withdrew in time from the 
ingulfing vortex? The wide wail — the desolating 
exulosions which followed, were poorly compensated 



154 THE IDOL AND THE WORSHIPPER. 

for by these exceptions. What though some might 
be charioted to-day, who yesterday lived by the 
sweat of their brows? To-morrow will see them 
more wretched than before. What though artificial 
standards have elevated a nominal wealth to the 
value of Potosi or Golconda? Broken fortunes, 
broken characters, broken hearts, are the sad realities 
which close the vista. And thus, would men learn, 
they might; it is written in light above us, accord- 
ing to the words already quoted : " He that loveth 
silver shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he that 
loveth abundance with increase." If covetousness be 
idolatry, and Mammon the idol, his devotees are 
taught that disaster and woe are their lot. 

Yet men have not been warned by all these things ; 
nay, the same spirit has revived in very recent years ; 
and could we unveil the miser}^ which has been en- 
dured by thousands as tlie result of recent crashes, 
the impression might b?. deepened as to the madness 
of " making haste to be rich." Men have said, " To- 
day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and 
(ymtinue there for a year, and buy and sell and get 
gain ; " but ere the year was closed, their gains have 
taken to themselves wings. The will of God was 
left out of view in their plans, and they were baffled. 

We must repeat — we have no controversy with com- 
mercial enterprise, when conducted in accordance with 
the wisdom of the Word of God. It is one of the 
means of binding nation to nation, and bringing back 
the alienated children of men to one wide family 



THE END. 155 

Circle, according to the purpose of our Father who is 
in heaven. But that is not to be accomplished by out- 
raging his laws ; and the man, the company, the 
nation, which extinguishes the lamp, will be left to 
walk in darkness. — AA^hen the butchers of the first 
French revolution were leading their victims to death, 
some of those who were doomed to die, were con- 
ducted, by a refinement in cruelty, along an alley 
into a garden of flowers, where only fragrance and 
beauty greeted their senses ; but at a certain spot, 
inevitable doom awaited them, at the hands of men 
who thirsted for their blood — and we need scarcely 
apply the illustration. In their haste to be rich, men 
seem, for a season, to walk amid fragrance. Their 
path is all luminous with hope — such hope as man's 
devices can inspire ; but sooner or later they are 
hurried into misery. 

"When infamous venality, groA\Ti bold, 
Writes on his bosom, 'to be let, or sold,'" 

men have laid a snare in which, by God's decree, 
they will be entangled ; they have dug a pitfall, in 
which, by God's decree, they will be taken. 



156 



CHAPTER VI. 

BBLIGION IN THE PROFESSIONS : — I. THE PHYSICIAN— 
II. THE LAWYER — III. THE DIVINE. 

There are many symptoms of the reviving power of 
religion in om^ day. Some of the great questions 
which enter into the very heart of society are con- 
nected with the claims of truth upon the one hand, or 
the pretensions of those who would suppress it upon 
the other. The high courts of Parliament are con- 
vulsed by religious discussions. When wars arise, 
or are threatened, they often owe their origin to 
topics connected with religion. Periodicals which 
began their career in indifference or antagonism to 
the truth, are now obliged to do obeisance to it, if 
they would command the attention of men, and some 
even of those whose opposition was once a mixture 
of sneers and acrimony, have now to borrow weight 
and influence from doctrines which will be found as* 
cendant when every form of error shall have vanished 
away. In a word, empires, countries, households, in- 
dividual souls, are alike proclaiming that the king- 
dom of our Father who is in heaven must come — 
that His will must be done on earth as it is done 
in heaven. 

Nay more, there is a kind of Christianity even 
among our infidels — that is, they owe not a little 
of what they hold to the very system which they 



II 



i 



I 



T!1E r:ELIGIOUS PHYSICIAN. 157 

disparage and affect to ignore. The truth is thus 
producing effects even in spheres from which men 
would gladly banish it, but into which it is mak- 
ing its way, like a rising tide, in spite alike of the 
indifference and the hostility of men. The friends 
of truth are thus encouraged. The collected light of 
the past and the present is projected into the future. 
Our nation, and the progress of truth within our 
borders, is a type of the world. In due time, reli- 
gion will rule all; either the sceptre of love will 
guide, or the rod of iron will dash the nations."^ 

In no respect, perhaps, is this progress more appa- 
rent than as regards the Medical Profession. In an- 
cient times, it was proverbially true, or alleged, that 
wherever there were three physicians, there were two 
atheists;-}- that is, the majority of that profession were 
then deemed atheists, or atheistic. How changed now ! 
Ma ly are, no doubt, still living without any recog- 
nition of God. They refuse to be illumined by the 
light which irradiates others, and grovel amid the 
grossness of m.aterial things, instead of soaring, as 
they might do, to' the spiritual, the heavenly, the 
eternal. But others, led by the Supreme Wisdom, 
do soar to these. AVith religion for their directresj, 
they are skilled in the remedy of the soul as well as 
of tlie bod3\ They can occasion the melody of spiri- 
tual joy and spiritual health, as well as promote the 
blessedness which originates in the well-being of the 

* Tsalm ii. 9-11. 

t " Ubi tres Medici, duo Atheu" 



158 DANGER 

body. An accomplished physician of our day has 
said, and said with truth: " Every medical practi- 
tioner, whether he desires to have it or not, has a 
cure of souls as well as of bodies. He is literally an 
inheritor of some of the duties of the very apostles, and 
called to be an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ."* 
Now, as no sphere could be named where Religion 
is confessedly more required, let us consider it for a 
little in connection with the Medical Profession. 

I. Conversant daily wdth death, or walking from 
hour to hour along the verge of the grave, and in 
sight of eternity, there is some danger lest these great 
realities should lose their power — that is, lest the 
mind should become indifferent to all that is most 
solemn in the lot of man. And what is the antidote? 
There is none, except a constant realizing of eternal 
and spiritual things. The mind must be kept con- 
stantly under their influence, or the proverb as to 
the atheists wdll be at least practically realized. 
Deprived as Physicians often are, of the repose of 
the Sabbath, and all opportunities for worshipping 
the Father of our spirits, they need a double portion 
of I'eligion in the soul.-[- If it be not possessed, then 
for the same reason as soldiers and seamen are pro- 
fligate and abandoned, till their profligacy be pro- 



* Lectures on Medical ^Fissions, Lect V., by Dr. G. Wilson. 

t Gouge, in his "Surest and Safest Way of Tlirivinff," tells of an emi- 
nent piiysician of his day, Dr. Bathurst, that "all his Lord's-day fees 
were kept as a bank for the poor." 



THE ANTIDOTE. 159 

verbial, do those who tend our bodies sink into deeper 
spiritual darkness than others. Though familiar with 
death, they are not warned, as other men are, of the 
need of preparing for what follows the all-decisive 
change. Accustomed to devote their thoughts and 
their care — sometimes, perhaps, with fe\ erish anxiety 
— to the body, they are in danger of forgetting its 
immortal occupant. Many do forget it, and gaze on 
the power of that ruthless destroyer who has baffled 
all their skill, vvith as little thought as a sexton on 
a coffin, or on the fragments of the dead which he 
dishumes with his mattock. Regarding the body as 
the man, and overlooking all beyond it, a gross mate- 
rialism becomes dominant in the mind ; and unless 
a divine, a living, and spiritual religion occupy the 
soul, as the antidote to this danger, the most skil- 
ful physician may just become practically the most 
thorough materialist. 

Nay, far more: such a physician must often see 
the mind of the dying utterly dependent on the state 
of the body. It is delirious or calm — it is soothed 
or agonized — it is torpid or restless, just according 
to the 6. age of the disease. This at least is com- 
monly the case; and accustomed to that spectacle, 
the ph3^sician who watches, perhaps with deep sym- 
pathy for the sufferer, over every new phase of tlie 
disease, almost in spite of himself regards the pal lent 
as a piece of mere materialism. It is upon the ma- 
terial part that his thoughts are fixed, or liis skill 
brought to bear. He thus magnities his office, and 



160 STN, AND DISEASE. 

hence his danger; hence the grossness of some of the 
more vulgar minds among physicians; hence the 
perils even of the purest and the most scientific. 

But hence, also, the need and the preciousness 
of pure and undefiled religion. Hence the mercy 
implied in the revelation of a spiritual Teacher, the 
very Spirit of God, to ward off that danger, and 
give reality and prominence to the things of the 
soul. Hence a loud call to those who know that 
there is a spirit in man, to realize its existence and 
seek its welfare. Hence the need of solemn im- 
pressions of the truth of God, in all that is said to 
fix our thoughts upon the soul, its condition and 
its destiny. Hence, in short, if any man needs a 
personal religion — that is, a religion for himself, a 
Saviour for himself, repentance, faith, love, hope, 
holiness, all for himself — it is the man who lives 
on the confines between life and deat^^ — w] ; has to 
do with the body when affection c!-..gs to it most 
closely; and who is apt to forget the inmate while 
attending to its abode — the immortal, while concen- 
trating his skill upon the transient dust. 

Or farther; no intelligent physician can practise 
for a single month without having the connection 
between sin and disease forced upon his notice. He 
may be too thoughtless to attend to it, or too gross 
to think of it at all; but whether he tln.:k of it or 
not, the fact is unquestionable — there i- a neces- 
sary, a divinely-appointed connection between crime 
and disease. The bloated drunkard and the wasted 



INSANITY. 161 

debaiicliee, the premature death of many a youth, 
the madness of many a maniac— all proclaim the 
beneficent decree of God, that suffering shall follow 
sin. Now, can it be rational for men to be daily 
cognisant with that connection, and do nothing to 
counteract it? Maintaining a daily conflict with 
pain, shall they ignore its origin ? Are they bene- 
volent or merciful, who assail the bodily disease, 
but neglect the divine antidote for the soul? Nay, 
am I not conspiring against the immortality of self- 
deluded man, if I know a cure for that mortal ailment 
which has seized on the very vitals of his being, and 
yet hide it from his view ? Rather let me press 
it kindly on his notice; and that I may learn to do 
so with tenderness and tact, let me make sure that it 
has attracted my own, that my soul is illumined by 
its radiance and animated by its hopes. 

Physicians, moreover, have often to deal with the 
insane ; and, though it be one of the grossest of all 
libels against the Gospel of peace, to allege that it 
ever produces insanity, it is no less true that exagge- 
rated, distorted, and false views of some doctrines of 
revelation may intensely agitate the soul. Extreme 
degrees of remorse for sin committed, and felt in its 
sinfulness against God, may convulse the whole man, 
till reason totter on its throne. With such cases the 
physician may be called to deal ; and if he be igno- 
rant of the power of religion, or prejudiced against it, 
not a cure, but an aggravation of the malady, may 
be expected to result. Religion is now among the 

L 



162 A PHYsi ian's power 

universallv accredited means of cure in well-orJereJ 
Institutions for the insane ; and he who is ignorant 
of the soothing power of God's pure truth in the 
conscience of a believer, is ill adapted to apply that 
remedy with effect. Hence the need of personal reli- 
gion in those who watch for the diseased ; hence the 
need of the Spirit's teaching, that he who is a guar- 
dian of the body's health may know how to pro- 
mote the soul's ; and that no physician will know 
till the Saviour be a Saviour to him, and the great 
question, *^ What must I do to be saved?' be prac- 
tically adjusted. 

And when we think of the position in which the 
patient is commonh' seen by the physician, the rea- 
sons why religion should reign paramount in the 
latter become more cogent still. The afflicted are, 
in some sense, at the mercy of the physician. The 
rkill of the medical attendant is the sheet-anchor of 
the sufferer. Actions, words, and looks, are care- 
fully watched and scrutinized, as if destiny wxre in 
them. The physician has given relief .from pain : 
he has, perhaps, brought back the patient from the 
verge of the grave ; and hence the one feels that the 
other is, for the time, the very life of his life. Now, 
lor what purpose should all that ascendency be em- 
ployed? Should it be used merely to amuse the 
sufferer, or beguile his thoughts for a little away 
from the prison-house into which sickness has con- 
verted his chamber ? Ah. no ; but for higher, holier 
ends : if that physician have religion in his own soul, 



ITS USES. 163 

he will use his influence as a means of medicating 
the soul of the sufferer, b}^ turning his thoughts to 
Him who kills and makes alive ; and where that is 
neglected, opportunities the most precious are lost — 
a talent which might reproduce itself more than a 
thousand-fold is guiltily hid in the earth. 

Nor should we fail to notice the influence for good 
wdiich may be exerted over the relatives of the dis- 
eased in times of sickness and sorrow. When the 
ploughshare of trial has torn up the heart, a phy- 
sician can drop in the seed which bears fruit unto 
holiness, if he love souls, or be wise to win them. 
Grief is indulged before him, which is pent up in 
the presence of others ; fears are expressed, dark 
forebodings appear, which none but the physician is 
permitted to witness. Confessions also are sometimes 
made, or secrets disclosed, which throw the door for 
doing good more open still ; and, amid all these 
things, only one explanation can be given, if the 
opportunity be not seized — that physician has no love 
for souls ; he does not know their value ; eternity is 
a name to him. True, there is a professional eti- 
quette to which many defer, and which it would 
be wrong, in its own place, to violate. But that 
etiquette is worldly or morbid which stands in the 
way of loving men's souls, or seeking to do them 
good; and such love Will watch for ways for dis- 
playing itself amid a crowd of obstacles. 

It has been the conviction of some Christian phy- 
sicians, that none but a Christian can discliar^re 



164 THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

aright the high duties of their profession. In its 
widest sense, we adopt the maxim; it is specially 
true iu regard to the necessity which exists for sub- 
ordinating all to the high intei'ests of that life where 
" there shall be no more death." — It is in this way 
that the Saviour's example is best copied and the 
Saviour's glory best promoted. What physicians 
only attempt, He accomplished. They strive to pro- 
long life ; He is the life itself. They are often phy- 
sicians of no value ; He dispenses the balm that is in 
Gilead ; He is the physician there. '^ This great 
Physician!" one exclaims, ^' this great sufferer! this 
vanquisher of death! this possessor and granter of 
an endless life, the Lord Jesus Christ, God over all, 
is the true Head of our profession;" and blessed is 
that physician who has learned, from his Head in 
glory, to watch for the souls, while he sheds blessings 
upon the bodies, of men. 

Nor are we merely theorizing here. Some phy- 
sicians, in all countries and ages, have been alive 
to this view of their profession. Boerhaave, for 
example, Avas a physician in such practice, that 
princes, ambassadors, and even Peter the Great, 
had to remain for hours in his ante-chamber be- 
fore they could be admitted to an interview ; and 
yet it was his constant habit to devote the first 
hour of every day to prayer and meditation on the 
Word of God — a practice which he recommended to 
others, as the source of that vigour which carried 
him through all his toils. Harvey, the discoverer of 



I 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 165 

tlie circulation of the blood, tells us that he never 
dissected the body of an animal without discovering 
something in which he had to recognise the hand of 
an all-wise Creator. William Iley, a surgeon of 
eminence, is described as one of those who fear God 
in youth, who walk with him through life, and to 
whom the hoary head is therefore a crown of glory. 
Arrested by the w^ords, " If any man be in Christ, he 
is a new creature," and affected by the love of God 
in the Saviour, he devoted himself, first to that which 
God puts first — the soul. The holy duties and holy 
pleasures of the Sabbath rest w^ere zealously culti- 
vated by Hey; in short, he escaped from the dangers 
of his profession, because he was afraid of them, and 
adopted the divine means of safety. His " support 
and comfort were found in believing views of the 
atonement made by Jesus ;" and, resting there, he 
was blessed and made a blessing. And Jenner, the 
discoverer of vaccination, is to be ranked in the same 
class — but we need not particularize. As we examine 
the records of the past, physician after physician rises 
up before us qualified to minister to the soul as well 
as the body ; and some of them actually doing so. 
Driven by the perils of their profession, they sought 
the wisdom of " God onl}^ wise," and w^ere guided 
by his Spirit in the path wliose end is glory. 

Let us, however, single out one example of a 
devout physician, and contemplate the ascendency of 
pure and undefiled religion in his life and death. 

Dr. John Cheyne was born at Leith in the year 



166 DR. JOHN CHEYNE. 

1777, and obtained a medical degree at Edinburgh 
in 1795. After various attempts to establish himself 
in practice, he .settled in Dublin in the year 1809, and 
rose step by step from an income at the rate of three 
guineas for six months, till he Avas in receipt of £5000 
per annum, on an average of ten years. When 
failing health forced him to withdraw from practice, 
he had received in fees for four months no less a sum 
than £2,230. 

But while thus rising to a high point in hi-s pro- 
fession, Dr. Cheyne was not oblivious of the soul. 
To a friend he once wTote: " You may wish to know 
the condition of my mind. I am humbled to the 
dust by the thought that there is not one action of 
my busy life which will bear the eye of a holy God. 
But when I reflect on the invitation of the Eedeemer, 
' Come unto ^le,' and that I have accepted this in- 
vitation ; and, moreover, that my conscience testifies 
that I earnestly desire to have my will in all things 
conformed to the will of God, I have peace, I have 
the promised rest — promised by Him in whom was 
found no guile.'' 

Moreover, Dr. Cheyne, with the calmness which 
only the truth as it is in Jesus, and good hope through 
him, can inspire, gave directions for his own funeral, 
in a spirit which evinces the great firmness of his 
faith. In the act of triumphing over death, he 
ordered a column to be erected near the spot where 
liis body lies, on which were to be inscribed these 
texts, as voices from eternity : " God so loved 



I 



A CHKISTIAN PHYSICIAN. 167 

the world, that he gave hi3 only begotteii Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but 
have eternal life ;" '^ Come unto me, all ye that 
labour and are heav}^ laden, and I will give you rest;'' 
and, ^'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, with- 
out which no man shall see the Lord.'' And while 
Dr. Cheyne thus strove even from the tomb to beckon 
sinners to the Saviour and to glory, he was careful 
to conceal his own name, and withhold it from the 
column. He was not less careful, however, to say, 
as speaking to the passer-by, '' The name, progression, 
and age of him w^hose body lies beneath are of little 
consequence ; but it may be of great importance to 
you to know, that, by the grace of God, he was brought 
to look to the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour of 
sinners, and that this ^ looking unto Jesus' gave 
peace to his soul." Nor was this all ; the appeal is 
yet more cogent to the reader. '^ Pray to God,'* it 
says, " pray to God that you may be instructed in 
the Gospel; and be assured that God will give the 
Hoi}' Spirit, the only teacher of true wisdom, to them 
that ask him." 

There, then, is the case of one physician whom 
no materialism could harden, and no familiarity with 
death blind to the glories of life and its Lord. He 
was carefdl to roll back every reproach from the 
pure truth of God; and whether that reproach ori- 
ginated with the superficial and the prejudiced in his 
own profession, or the ignorant in other spheres. 
Lis fine mental powers, his love of souls, his felt 



168 EETEIBUTIONS. 

interest in the things of eternity and the favour of 
God, evermore urged Dr. Cheyne to act like one 
who knew the grace of God in truth. 

Now, what has been may be — what has been in 
such a cause, ought to be ; and were men not too 
often the willing victims of the evil heart of unbelief, 
we should find more of the guardians of our health 
walking in the steps of Luke, the beloved physician, 
than is now the case. A godless physician beside 
a dying man^s couch must exercise a torpedo-like 
influence on the soul, deadening or disturbing all 
that is heavenly. On the other hand, the man who 
can wisely and tenderly prescribe for the soul, or at 
least point to its great Physician, while earing for 
the aching or the wasted body, is a brother born for 
adversity indeed. Countless as are the opportunities 
w^hich that w^ise and Christian physician may enjoy 
for warning the careless, for cheering the despair- 
ing, or pointing the dying to the Life, he is not the 
friend, but the heartless enemy of man, who neglects 
to embrace them, and tell of Him who is both our 
righteousness and our strength. If no words of re- 
probation be too strong for him who sees a fellow- 
ereature writhing in agony without assisting him 
when he has the power, what shall we say of the 
unfeeling, the inhuman being, who lets a fellow- 
sinner perish in his guilt for ever, unheeded and 
unwarned ? 

One sentence more. Various solutions have been 
attempted for the phenomenon which has long been 




THE LAWYER. ] 69 

commoTi — the ungodliness or the gross lives of many 
physicians. Without challenging any of the explana- 
tions which have been offered, there can be no doubt 
that that phenomenon has a moral cause. Men ne- 
glect the most solemn warnings. While tending the 
sick and the dying, they see sin and its effects linked 
together in bonds which cannot be broken ; and yet 
they continue in sin themselves. Unchecked by what 
should check, passion carries them forward in their 
downward career, and the coarseness of the lives of 
some physicians appears a righteous retribution for 
warnings slighted — for lessons not learned — for God 
not heard — and the divinely-appointed connection 
between sin and misery not recognised. Where, on 
earth, can a scene so appropriate for religion as a 
dying man's chamber be found ? And shall the phy- 
sician leave it without blame, if he not merely drop 
no hint of the glory which awaits the ransomed, the 
woe of the unsaved ; but, moreover, proceeds to add 
sin to sin in his own life ? The man who does 
so, voluntarily and sinfully comes down from the 
highest vantage ground on which a mortal can stand. 
The patii'ii" feels as if his life were in the physician's 
hand ; a word from him would sink like an oracle 
into the soul, but that word is not spoken — not one 
hint is given, and in the high reckoning of eternity 
is not such a man guilty in the deepest sense? 

II. Perhaps the Lawyer is exposed to yet greater 
spiritual peril than the physician, and his need of a 



170 MORAL DANGERS. 

better wisdom than man's is proportionablj great. 
The circumstances in which he is generally consulted 
render it specially needful that the law of God should 
be in his heart, and shine as the pole-star of his 
mind. Men resort to him, smarting under a sense 
3f injury ; and the lawyer needs prudence to repress 
che rising or the rankling desire for revenge. They 
seek his guidance when threatened by the oppressor ; 
how^ discreet, then, should he be in his counsels ! 
They may even ask his aid to accomplish some 
nefarious project — to overreach and defraud ; or, to 
defend some fraud already committed. How prompt, 
then, should lawyers be to repress such iniquity, that 
the land may not mourn because blood touches blood! 
Every trial in this world's concerns — every dread of 
loss, of bankruptcy, or imposition, may send the client 
to the door of his legal adviser; and, amid all these 
things, if there be a man on earth who needs the 
control of steadfast, unfaltering truth — a counsellor 
who is ever near — a wisdom which cannot err — a 
charity which ^' seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, 
but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, be- 
lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things^' — the lawyer is that man. 

And yet there is much in his position to bias or 
to pervert his judgm.ents. Accustomed, at least in 
some departments of his profession, to various sinister 
influences, and often more bent on discovering what 
can be said for a cause than what is true, the mind 



I 



i 



SPECIAL PLEADERS. 171 

may be so warped as to lose the power of dispas- 
sionate decision. It may acquire such a habit of 
tampering with the truthful, or be so much more 
anxious to carry a point than to establish a fact, 
that a kind of subtle Jesuitism may be the result — a 
habit of perplexing all that is simple, or shrouding 
in mystery all that is plain. 

Moreover, an advocate, while he pleads for the life 
or the liberty of a client, may not merely feel him- 
self free, but bound, to use every means, to accom- 
plish his object, even though some of them may be 
tortuous or equivocal. Nay, it may become a point 
of honour to conceal or perplex the true, and attempt 
to establish the false. In this manner, the endea- 
vour to keep as near to falsehood as a regard to cha- 
racter, or rather to success, will allow, may foster a 
habit of mind subversive of all that is lofty or pure in 
truth. And where shall we find an antidote to that but 
in the truth which came from heayen — where but in 
the authority of Him who is the Lord of conscience — 
where but in the Judge of all, whose law written on 
the heart, though only partially legible now, taughl 
even a heathen to say, ^'^ Fiat Justitia^ ruat caelum f'^ 

The baneful effects of this moral peril are recog- 
nised, in common language, by the discredit alwa}'? 
thrown upon a Special Pleader, now almost a syno- 
nyme for meanness, chicanery, and deception. There 
are, no doubt, many who are above the baseness of 
fraud, and the dishonesty of a conscious attempt to 
deceive ; but it may fairly be questioned whether it 



172 "the licence of counsel." 

be common to find men, in certain departments of 
the legal profession, so thoroughly elevated above 
temptation as not to be exposed to moral peril. Nay, 
we speak too guardedly on this subject — others have 
spoken out. " There are many," an eminent lawyer 
has said, '' whom it may be needfal to remind, that an 
advocate, by the sacred duty of his connection with 
his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but 
one person in the world — that client, and none other. 
To serve that client, by all expedient means ; to pro- 
tect that client, at all hazards and costs to all others 
(even the party already injured), and, amongst others, 
to himself, is the highest and most unquestioned of 
his duties. And he must not regard the alarm, the 
suffering, the torment, the destruction, which he may 
bring upon any other. Nay, separating even the 
duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, he must 
go on, reckless of the consequences, if his fate should 
unhappily be to involve his country in confusion for 
his client."^ 

Now, this is plain, but it is also perilous. The 
expedient is here allowed to supersede not merely 
the patriotic, but also the truthful. If the object 
aimed at, which may be to screen successful villan}^, 
or slielter even a murderer from punishnient, can be 
; omplished — all is reckoned fair. Truth may be 
compromised; honest witnesses browbeaten or bewil- 
dered ; and the beautiful transparency of one upright 

* See this quotation from the "The Licence of Counsel," in Whately's 
Rhetoric. Part IL, chap. iii. 



INIQUITY SYSTEMATIZED. 173 

man^s intercourse with another turned into mockery, 
or treated with derision. Lawyers not a few have 
proved, by their offences against truth and the sacred 
obligations of man to man, that it is only too con- 
genial to their liking thus to trample truth in the 
dust. They feign '' pity, indignation, moral appro- 
bation, or disgust or contempt, when they neither 
feel anything of the kind, nor believe the case to 
be one that justly calls for such feelings ; they are 
led also occasionally to entrap or mislead, to revile, 
insult, and calumniate persons w^hom they may, in 
their heart, believe to be respectable persons and 
honest witnesses," and such putting of bitter for sweet, 
and sweet for bitter, must involve a woe. It cannot 
fail to warp the conscience and becloud the mind; 
and the man who does not feel the danger of such 
ways, is already their dupe or their victim. One 
has pertinently asked the learned and the noble who 
patronize these outrages against truth, while yet they 
profess to be Christians, how they can reconcile the 
two. There is a religion which says that ^ lying 
lips are an abomination to the Lord ; ' and how can 
men, it is asked, avoid the solemn scriptural de- 
nunciation, " Woe unto them that call evil good, and 
good evil ; that put darkne:ris for light, and light for 
darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
bitter; . . . who justify the wicked for reward, and 
take away the rigliteousness of the rigliteous from 
him."^- 



Sec Archbishop Whately's Rhetoric. Part II., chap. iii. 



174 LORD EACON*. 

Perhaps the most remarkable illasiiitljn of the 
iDJurious effects of such habits upon the heart and 
mind is found in the case of Lord Chancellor Bacon — 

•* The wisesL brightest, meanest of mankin d-" 

This is not the place to tell of his learning, his world- 
TN"ide fame, his greatness as a philosopher who revolu- 
tionized science^ and certainly introduced a new era 
in the ji-tory cf mas. His eloquence as a pleader, 
and the stately majesty of his thinking, place Bacon 
high among '^ the starry lights of genius." He is in 
philosophy what Shakespeare or Milton is among poets. 
And yet, that man so gifted and transcendaiit, was 
guilty of actions which equal in turpitude aught 
that is recorded in the history of human weakness. 
Whether we are to ascribe it to the discipline of his 
profession, fostering some inb<3rn tendencies to what 
is disreputable and degrading, we do not tarry to in- 
quire; but looking at the fact which history renders 
too unquestiocable. we have in this illustrious philo- 
sopher but tmscrupulous man, a painful exhibition of 
mans native weakness when the heavenly lamp is 
shaded or extin^ruished. Some have explained the 
low morality of Bacon by supposing that he was an 
infidel, and some of his reputed works rather favour 
the supposition.* But his productions as a whole 
forbid us to adopt that solution, and we are conse- 
quently left with an example of a most painful kind, 
to prove the worthlessness of powers the most colossal, 

* See Campbel's lives of the QunceDurs, vol. ii pp. 429, 430l 



" MEN OF HIGH DEGREE ARE A. LIE." 



175 



of learning and originality unsurpassed, of gifts the 
most varied and transcendent to keep man in the path 
of virtue, when the heavenly guide is abandoned. We 
can only enumerate in a catalogue some of the inci- 
dents in the life of Bacon which establish these con- 
clusions. 

At a critical period, he received from the Earl of 
Essex, when that nobleman was in favour with Queen 
Elizabeth, a gift of land Avhich was worth at least 
£1800, Yet against his benefactor, Bacon afterwards 
enlisted his great powers, to convict him of high-trea- 
son ; and that merely to purchase the Queen's favour, 
and promote the philosopher's advancement. " Bacon 
spent the ten days which elapsed between the com- 
mitment of Essex to the Tower and his arraignment, 
shut up in his chambers in Gray's Inn, studying the 
law of treason ; looking out for parallel cases of an 
aggravated nature in the history of other countries, 
and considering hoAV he might paint the unpardonable 
guilt of the accused in even blacker colours than 
could be employed by the ferocious Coke, famous for 
insulting his victims."* The man whom Bacon thus 
laboured to condemn had heaped favour after favour 
upon him, and been meanly fawned upon in return, 
yet during the trial, Lord Campbell says, Bacon 
"most artfully and inhumanly compared Kssex to the 
Dake of Guise," and adds, in regard to the Earl after 
he was condemned, and an intci-^'iew which Bacon 



* Campbell, vol. il. p. 307. 



176 THE TORTURE 

had with the Queen upon the subject, '' Wh\^ did he 
not throw himself on his knees before her and pray 
for a pardon ? Because, while it was possible that he 
might have melted her, it was possible that he might 
have offended her, and that, a vacanc}^ in the office of 
Solicitor- General occurring, (for which Bacon was a 
suitor) he might be again passed over." 

But not contented with having pled for the con- 
demnation of Essex, Bacon, in order to ingratiate 
himself farther with the Queen, published an attack 
upon the fallen man, regarding which the great 
philosopher's biographer says: "No honoarable man 
would purchase Bacon's subsequent elevation at the 
price of being the author of this publication. . . . The 
base ingratitude and the slavish meanness manifested 
by him on this occasion, called forth the general in- 
dignation of his contemporaries. . . . He had before 
his eyes no just standard of honour, and in the race 
of ambition, he had lost all sense of the distinctions 
between right and wrong." 

It were a weariness to trace all the instances of 
Bacon's meanness in place-hunting, and his fulsome 
adulation of those who appeared likely to promote liis 
views. He even went so far as to prosecute a clergy- 
man named Peacham, for a sermon alleged to contain 
treason, but never either preached or published. 
Bacon was then Attorney- General. He tampered 
with the judges, says Lord Campbell, and had the 
unhappy man put to the torture, tj wring a confes- 
sion from him, without success. •' He was examined 



EMPLOYED BY LORD BACON, 177 

before torture, between torture, auci after cortiire/' — 
These are Bacon's own words, and according to the 
biographer of the Chancellors, there is reason to 
believe that he even presided at the rack. He thus 
outraged the law and the constitution of England 
to gratify James I., then upon the throne. But the 
Lord Chancellor of the day was aged and infirm. 
Lord Campbell says, ^'ho could not much longer 
hold the seals, and Bacon was resolved to be his 
successor.^' That was his aim, and is not Lord 
Campbell right in adding, "' there are stronger con- 
trasts of light and shade in the character of Bacon, 
than probably of any other man who ever lived ?'^ 
The instances of meanness, of subserviency, of adu- 
lation to those from whom he expected favours, as 
proved by his own letters, convict this philosopher 
and sage of conduct which would have degraded a 
menial ; while to the whole he could add a malignity 
never surpassed, all under pretence of acting a Chris- 
tian part. His biographer says that he poured oil ol 
vitriol into the wounds he had inflicted, and it was ia 
perfect keeping with this that that Attorney- General 
of England, in consequence of some ofience which he 
had unwarily given, flung himself on the floor, kissed 
the feet of such a man as Buckingham, the profligate 
favourite of James, and vowed never to rise till he 
was forgiven. 

But he could not always proceed unchecked. 
Nemesis was not forgetful of the right. Bacon had 
reached the summit of his ambition; he was Lord High 

M 



178 bacon's bpjhes — 

Chancellor of England, and in that character soon 
became notorious for the bribes which he accepted for 
bis judgments. This more than European philoso- 
pher, this author of a new logic, and of works which 
brought the learned from all parts of Christendom to 
converse with him, was know^n to take bribes as a 
judge ! A committee of the House of Commons was 
appointed to investigate such corruption. The Chan- 
cellor shuffled, equivocated, denied, but at last con- 
fessed, because the evidence was such as no partiality 
could escape. A great number of charges of bribery 
were established. The whole have been supposed 
to amount to £100,000. Bacon was about to be 
impeached. He broke down under the load of in- 
famy, and appealed to the King to interpose ; but 
all was unavailing, and the Lord High Chancellor of 
England, one of the profoundest thinkers of modern 
times, gave in to his peers, *' His confession and 
bumble submission." It says, "I do plainly and 
ingenuously confess that T am guilty of corruption; 
and do renounce all defence and put myself upon the 
grace and mercy of your Lordships." When visited 
at his house, where he lay in shattered health, to 
ascertain the genuineness of his signature to the con- 
fession, he exclaimed, '' My lords, it is my act, my 
hand, my heart. I beseech your Lordships to be 
merciful to a broken reed;" and he subsequently 
surrendered the great seal, the bauble for which, 
Macaulay says, he had sullied his integrity, had 
resigned his independence, bad violated the most 



HIS DISGKACE, 179 

sacred obligations of friendship and gratitude, had 
flattered the worthless, had persecuted the innocent, 
had tampered with judges, had tortured prisoners, 
and had wasted on paltry intrigues all the powers of 
the most exquisitely constructed intellect that has 
ever been bestowed on any of the children of men. 

Bacon's sentence from his peers was, a fine of 
£40,000 ; he was to be imprisoned in the Tower 
during the King's pleasure; to be for ever incapable 
of holding any public ofSce, place, or employment, 
and never to sit in Parliament, or come within the 
verge of the court. The king Avas eventually moved 
to rescind the judgment, but Bacon was then too old 
to profit by the clemency — he was on the eve of 
passing away to meet the just and merciful Judge of 
the skies. 

Now, this glimpse at the rise and fall of this great 
lawyer, proclaims aloud the insufficiency of all but the 
grace and truth of God to keep man morally erect. 
Not gigantic intellectual powers — had these sufficed, 
Bacon would have been steadfast as a rock. Not 
worldly success — Bacon sat at the right hand of 
royalty, and kept the conscience of a king. Not 
great trust — the Lord High Chancellor of England 
was the foremost subject in that respect. Not cele- 
brity — with that, Bacon might have been satiated. 
Not greatness — without goodness, that is a tinkling 
cymbal. What then? The answer which experi- 
ence, history, and the Word of God combine to 
give, is this, '' I am what I am by the grace of God 



180 SIR MATTHEAV HALE. 

that is in me." The man who dims the light of thai 
lamp which was kindled in heaven, has already tot- 
tered to his LW. 

But truth would have '' fallen In the streets/' had 
all lawyers acted thus. There have been some, 
however, who repelled such things with high-toned 
integrity and honour, and we now turn to a contrast 
to Lord Chancellor Bacon — to one 

" In whom 
The British Themis gloried with jiist cause." 

Sir Matthew Hale was one of those upright men 
whom all the good delight to honour. AVith his 
conscience quickened by habitual contact with the 
Word of God, and his whole soul familiar with the 
heavenly standard, he repudiated all that was dis- 
reputable in his profession. Pure religion presided 
over his practice; and while honouring God, he was 
honoured by him. As soon as Hale was convinced 
of the injustice of any cause, he Immediately de- 
clined to advocate it, and utterly refused to plead 
against the truth. He at least frowned upon all that 
was false and unfair. As a judge, he repressed 
every attempt to ensnare or mislead a witness. He 
felt that, when such things are done under the very- 
shadow of the judge's bench, where the great ends 
of truth and justice should be inviolably promoted, 
gross guilt may be expected to reign in other 
spheres. He, therefore, shunned as a sin all that 
savoured of finesse; and, braced for duty by the 
truth of God, no influencej no entreaty, not even a 



SIR WILLIAM JONES. 181 

monarcVs smile, could Induce him to swerve from 
the path in which a good man ought to go. In short, 
his pleadings as an advocate were characterized by 
the same integrity, and the same Christian consistency 
as the other actions of his life. Indeed, to act other- 
wise, or to be one thing as a lawyer and another as 
a man, is one of the numerous conventional snares 
laid for conscience which tend to meanness as surely 
as they encourage immorality. It seems a truism, 
•' It is as great a dishonour as can be inflicted, for 
man to say otherwise than he knows to be true, for 
the love of a little money ;^^ and yet what crowds 
are thus degraded ! 

Need we add, religion repudiates all these fetches ? 
Common as it may be to sacrifice conscience for 
gain or for professional success, the man who has sat 
down at the Saviour's feet, and is taught by the 
Saviour's Spirit, will be ready with the cry: ^' Into 
their asseuibly, mine honour, be not thou united." 

Side by side with Sir Matthew Hale Ave may place 
Sir \\ illiani Jones, who was as eminent for personal 
religion as he was for his profound acquaintance with 
the Oriental and other tongues. Lawyer as he was, 
his was a mind of decided godliness, and a life of 
much consistency. The atonement of the Saviour was 
the anchor of his hope, and the Word of God a light 
to his feet and a lamp to his path, lie said of it: 
^' I have carefully and regularly perused the Holy 
Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume, inde- 
pendently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, 



182 



MINISTERS OF RELIGION, 



purer morality, more important histor}^, and finer 
strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all 
other books, in whatever other languages they may 
have been written." Now, that is much — but not 
too much — from one who had mastered eight-and- 
twenty languages, and v/as familiar with the riches 
of them all. It stands in instructive contrast with 
the flippant ungodliness of those who never devoted 
one earnest hour, or poured forth one earnest peti- 
tion, to know the mystery which was hid for ages, 
but which is opened up in the revelation of Jesus. 
It shows that there is nothing essentially or neces- 
saril}' godless in a lawyer's profession ; and it leaves 
the unprincipled men who sell their very consciences 
for gold, without excuse, amid their systematic viola- 
tions of honour, of integrity, a'ld truth. 



III. It may appear strange to occupy a sentence in 
saying that Ministers of Religion should be Christian 
men ; and yet the dark history of tlie past makes it 
necessary to say it. Nay, so necessary is it, that 
Luther made no over-statement, when he averred that 
religion is never in such danger as among reverend 
men. Habituated, as they are, to handle divine 
things, they are scarcely less habitually In danger of 
doing so deceitfully. To be called upon profession- 
ally to engage in sacred duties at all times and in 
all states of mind — to be constantly contemplating 
truth in some of its countless forms for professional 
uses, without applying it to the heart, and life, 



SPIRITUAL DEATH. 183 

and pracitlce of the person contemplating it — to ex- 
patiate upon the glories of redemption and the Re- 
deemer, topics on which the most phlegmatic heart 
may glow, without taking any personal interest in 
them at all ; — these, and countless other dangers, 
beset the ministers of religion ; these account for 
their frequent falls, and the disgrace which is thereby 
brought upon the holy name they bear. To urge 
conversion while we are not converted — to com- 
mend the love of Chnst when we do not feel it — to 
preach repentance which we do not practise, and faith 
which we do not hold — to tell of a Saviour whom we 
know only by rumour — of a Spirit whom w^e habitu- 
ally grieve — of a heaven to which we are not going, 
and an immortality which, is to be only one of woe 
to us ; — to what can all that lead but self-deception 
of the direst kind — to searedness of conscience — to 
hearts hardened, and salvation rendered hopeless ? 
Of all dangers, those of an irreligious minister must 
rank among the greatest. We do not limit the grace 
of God; but he who has learned to preach about a 
Redeemer whose power he never felt, about a Pro- 
phet who does not teach liim^ about a Priest who 
does not atone for him^ about a King who does not 
rule him^ seems not far from destruction. At the 
same time, constant exposure to that danger lessens 
the sense of it ; and consciences which were uneasy 
at first, gradually settle quietly down, like a ship 
which has foundered at sea — and all is peaceful, 
because all ii». death. 



184 



TRUTH ENTHRONED. 



Moreover, ministers of religion are not usually 
exhorted, warned, or unmasked, as other men are; 
and hence their dangers are enhanced. Professional 
devotion is apt to be all that they have; and they 
may thus pass through life with a lie in their right 
hand. They can at last tamper with truth without 
compunction or alarm; and the most solemn functions 
have often furnished materials only for mirth. 

But it is far from our object to do more than refer 
to this subject. Let us only observe how insuffi- 
cient mere professional punctilio is to keep the heart 
of man, how easily all the withes of formality are 
snapped when temptation assails. Eeligion has little 
to fear from the open enemy; it is the pretended 
friend, the professed defender, but real assailant, who 
w^eakens it. 

Yet while we do not dwell on the duties of the 
ministry, we cannot omit the opportunity wdiich a 
reference to the sacred office affords for showing the 
necessity of enthroning the AVord of God in the 
heart of man; and for having every thought, and 
word, and deed, subject to its control. It has been 
often said that without the Bible, London or New 
York would soon become what Paris, Vienna, Rome, 
and Naples are. In as far as the Bible is neglected 
in the protestant cities, the saying is fast hastening 
to its fulfilment; and the clerical profession supplies 
too many instances by which the remark may be 
farther verified. 

It might be supposed, then, thnt fenced round a3 



THE REV. DR. DODD. 185 

minister's of religion are by professional barriers, 
kept as they are, or should be, in daily contact with 
the truth of God, and the things of eternity, all 
would be pure, and lovely, and of good report. But 
example after example can be quoted to show how 
far it is often the reverse, and the case of the Rev. 
Dr. Dodd will amply illustrate the remai'k. He waa 
a prebendary of Brecon, and chaplain in ordinary to 
George III. As a preacher he was celebrated and 
popular; he was often called on to plead the cause 
of the London charities, and took an active part in 
promoting their interests. He published a commen- 
tary on the Scriptures, which Dr. Adam Clark, no 
incompetent judge, pronounced "the best in the 
English language.'' To that work he added various 
others, chiefly of a devotional kind, some of which 
still hold a prominent place among productions of 
their class. But neither the mental powers which 
produced these works, nor the eloquence which he dis- 
played, nor the spirit of devotion which appeared to 
some to breathe through his volumes, nor his rank as 
a royal chaplain, nor the claims and regards of those 
who were dependent on him, nor his high position in 
society, could restrain Dr. Dodd within the narrow 
way. He contracted expensive habits of living, oc- 
casioned, it is said, by licentiousness of manners. 
Dr. Johnson, his earnest and indefatigable friend, 
says, " His moral character was very bad;" and in 
an evil hour, Dodd forged a bond for £4,200, upon his 
former pupil, the Earl of Chesterfield. 



186 THE WAGES OF SIN. 

The fallen man, no doubt, hoped that he would 
be able to meet the demand when that transaction 
reached the stage which made that necessary, so as 
neither to expose himself, nor really defraud his for- 
mer pupil. Dodd was unable, however, to meet the 
emergency, for difficulties were increased, not dimin- 
ished, by such a step. The forgery was detected ; 
the Earl of Chesterfield would not interfere ; the law 
took hold of the culprit, and the sad spectacle was pre- 
sented to the nation of one who had formerly stood 
so high, dying a criminars death. The man who 
had commented on the Word of God, forgot to apply 
it to the regulation of his own life. Extravagance, 
licentiousness, and fraud, were the stages by which 
he descended from his elevation. He began by 
slight degrees to overstep the restraints of the Word 
of God; and when he had once succeeded in setting 
it aside, the descent was rapid, the ruin utter. He 
who attempted to deceive his fellow- men, and for 
a time succeeded, had first deceiA^ed himself; but his 
sin found him out, and on the 27th of June 1777, 
the Commentator on the Bible, the author of several 
devotional Avorks, died at Tyburn by the hands of 
the public executioner. The jury who tried him 
recommended him to the royal clemency. The city 
of London petitioned the crown in his favour; and 
another petition prepared by Dr. Johnson, and signed 
by three-and-twenty tliousand, was also presented. 
But all was unavailing; the adviser of the crown 
would not recommend even a respite, and though Dr. 



A DEATH OF INFAMY. 187 

Dodd cherished the hope of pardon till the last, there 
never was a foundation for the hope. Justice took 
its inexorable course. 

The view which many took of this culprit's case, 
may be represented by a letter from Bos well to Dr. 
Johnson. He says — " I own I am very desirous 
that the royal prerogative of remission of punishment 
should be employed to exhibit an illustrious instance 
of the regard which God's vicegerent will ever show 
to piety and virtue. If for ten righteous men, the 
Almighty would have spared Sodom, shall not a 
thousand acts of goodness done by Dr. Dodd counter- 
balance one crime ? Such an instance would do more 
to encourage goodness than his execution would do to 
deter from vice." But neither this nor the speeches, 
the petitions, nay, not even the letters v/hich Dr. 
Johnson wrote for Dr. Dodd to royalty itself, availed, 
and just before passing to execution he confessed that 
" his life for some few unhappy years past had been 
dreadfully erroneous." In one of his letters to the 
king, the fallen man, in language which Dr. John- 
son had prepared, " confessed his crime, and owned 
both the enormit}^ of its consequences and the dan- 
ger of its example." He, at the same time, said, '' I 
have not the confidence to petition for impunity, but 
humbly hope that public security may be established 
without the spectacle of a clergyman dragged through 
the streets to a death of infamy, amidst the derision 
of the profligate and profane; and that justice may be 
satisfied with irrevocable exile, perpetual disgrace, and 



188 THE ONLY GUIDE. 

hopeless penury." Every effort, however, was fruit- 
less. Large sums of money Avere ready to bribe the 
turnkey to connive at an escape. A figure in wax, 
representing Dr. Dodd, was said to have been con- 
veyed into the prison to aid the same object, but 
neither did that succeed; and, according to Dr. 
Johnson, he died on the scaffold " with pious com- 
posure and resolution." 

It was, indeed, a spectacle which might have 
touched the hearts of thousands, did aught but Omni- 
potent grace possess that power, to see a minister of 
religion conducted to Tyburn in such circumstances 
as we have described. We may deem the law severe, 
or think that the life of Dr. Dodd should have been 
spared; but his melancholy lot is not the less in- 
structive. His whole history tells how feeble are 
human barriers against human guilt. 

And the consequences of this crime did not ter- 
minate with Dr. Dodd himself He had married a 
Miss Perkin:^ of Dui'ham, but, left in sorrow, poverty, 
and disgrace, by her husband, reason forsook her, 
and she died a wretched maniac at Ilford in Essex. 
Is it not true that unthinking men, in pursuit of 
the wages of sin, scatter firebrands, and arrows, and 
death, though they say. Am not I in sport? 

Here, then, is a case which thoroughly exhibits 
the necessity of enthroning the Bible in the heart, 
and keeping it enthroned. There is some reason to 
fear that the minister whom Dr. Johnson describes 
as having '' lived a life of great voluptuousness," had 



THE TRUTH OUR SHIELD. 189 

never felt the power of the truth, even before he 
fell into the habits which ended in his ruin. But, 
however that may be, it is manifest that after Dr. 
Dodd had entered on his downward career, the truth 
was discarded, and the deceitful heart consulted — 
not the Wonderful, the Counsellor. The truth could 
have kept him steadfast. It could have taught him 
to dash temptation from him, as Paul shook off the 
viper from his hand into the flames at Melita. But 
Dodd forgot the Bible, he tampered with temptation, 
and he fell. We say nothing of the extravagance 
which the need of so large a sum as £4,200 on the 
part of a clergyman betokens. AYe only glance at 
what was most probably his purpose, to pay the 
sum for which he had forged, before it became due. 
These and other things might be pled in palliation, 
but looking simply at the act, who does not see that 
neither professional punctilio, nor external barriers, 
nor a thousand earthly bonds can prevent man from 
sinning, when the lamp to our path is extinguished 
— the Word of God set aside even in a single trans- 
action ? 

Further: Dr. Dodd is known to have continued 
his professional employments after his felonious trans- 
action. Conscious as ho must have been of what be 
had done with his own right hand, he yet continued 
to lead the devotions of his flock, and act as if no 
crime had been committed. We do not refer to the 
feelings of a minister of Christ amid such things; 
but we do say that the whole transaction proc' .ims, 



19C GIFTS WITHOUT GRACE A SNARE. 

in a way the most solemn and the most cogent, thai 
no secondary restraints will keep man from iniquity ; 
they are all like sand before the torrent, or flax 
before the flame. The Bible, and the Bible alone, 
laid up in the heart, and blessed by the Spirit there, 
can either make man right, or keep him so. In a 
word, this example tells aloud that every human in- 
fluence, every earthly appliance, is weak against the 
heart of man, unless the truth of God control it. Con- 
science will be warped. Reputation will be risked. 
Professional standing will be presumed upon. Life 
will be hazarded. The hearts of those whom we love 
will be broken ; and only when the Word of God is 
permitted to rule the soul, is the heart kept as the 
fountain of the issues of life. Men regard such cases 
as that of Dr. Dodd as doing injury to religion, and 
the infidel hails them as a disproof. They are in truth 
confirmations of it, and prove that only that truth 
admitted into the heart, enthroned and maintained in 
the conscience as it demands to be, can rescue man 
from self- degradation and moral death. Dr. Dodd 
fell because the Bible was not his guide. He de- 
serted religion and was ruined. 

Another example points in the same direction, 
and may deepen the impression of that of Dr. Dodd. 
At a recent period, a pieacher of great popularity 
gathered crowds around him in London ; thousands 
heard the tiiith at his lips ; and he filled a large place 
in the public eye. Accomplished as a scholar, eloquent 
as a preacher, and crraceful as a man, he wielded 



A FELON. 191 

no limited power within a considerable sphere. To 
his iniiaence as a minister of religion he added that 
of an author ; and what he published was read by 
thousands. Not a little originality of thought, and 
vigorous powers rendered him, in short, an able advo- 
cate of the truth. 

Here, then, is another man who seems to be fenced 
off from the world by much that should have been 
constraining; ' it in this case also, we may see how 
futile every subordinate influence proves against the 
wayward heart of man. 

The divine referred to, elated perhaps by his suc- 
cess, began to frequent the haunts of wit, and to 
associate with the literary, merely as literary men. 
He laid aside, or he merged for the time, those truths 
of God which alone can elevate, and went down to 
the level of those who think they can find something 
to make them blessed apart from the truth, and the 
f-iVOUY of their God. From the excitement of wit 
there is scarcely a transition to the excitement of 
wine, and that followed next. By a gradual descent, 
that man, at one time so ascendant, became a felon in 
his own eyes ; he fled from the pulpit which he had 
begun to desecrate, and sought an asylum in Paris, 
where theatres — saloons of fashion — 

" The midnight revel and the public show," 

became his haunts. For years his friends could find 
no trace of him ; and when he was discovered, it was 
as one who lived by gambling — a degraded, wretched 



192 THE gaitbler's end. 

outcast. While he lived in that self- outlawed con- 
dition, a fi'iend who had learned the truth from the 
fallen man's lips, actually resorted to a hell^ to 
make sure of the sad change which had come over 
his former teacher, and to his horror he found what 
he sought. He saw that minister of Christ taking 
part in the orgies of a Parisian pandemonium, and 
hastened with an aching heart, from that last retreat 
of the infatuated. That victim of his own heart was 
at length taken ill at Bordeaux ; a surgical operation 
was declared to he necessary, and to escape from the 
pain, he blew out his brains with a pistol. 

Need anything be said to enforce the moral of such 
a case ? Everything but the Word of God control- 
ing the heart is feeble against passion, as a spider's 
web against a stoiTU, Everything else is fleeting as 
the sand of the desert, or veering as the mimic figures 
which tell the changes of the wind. The Word of 
the Lord alone endureth for ever, both in itself and 
its moral ascendency. 

Xor is it only in insulated cases, among ministers 
of religion, that such mournful truths are pressed upon 
our attention. In times of religious declension, such 
sad demonstrations of the insufficiency of all but 
grace and truth to t.me the passions of men, mav 
be seen almost upon a national scale. There is 
a man, for example, whom the grace of God has 
arrested amid a life of waywardness and guilt, and 
rendered a signal monument of mercy. In term- of 
his own confession, there was scarcely a i ..-iich 



BLIND LEADERS. 193 

he had not committed, and as a fiery duellist, he was, 
in the eyes of God, a murderer. But the truth was at 
last felt in the conscience, and that man once so bold 
in iniquity, sought the society of those from whom 
he expected help on his way ; with what result his 
biographer shall tell: ^' Other proofs, '' we read, *' of 
the degraded state of the dominant party in the 
Church (of Scotland) might be mentioned, particularly 
a Presbytery dinner to which Mr. James Haldane 
was invited in Edinburgh, upon a special occasion, 
and to which he had gone, hoping for useful, perhaps 
spiritual, or at least rational conversation, on the topics 
in which he was now chiefly interested. Instead of 
this, the company were treated to bacchanalian songs, 
the folly of which was aggravated into something 
approaching to wickedness, by an admixture of ridi- 
culous, if not profane allusions to their own sacred 
calling and functions. The burden of one song was 
the prescription of "a bumper of Nottingham Ale'* 
in the pulpit, at the different stages of a Presbyterian 
discourse. If, in the hey-day of youth and folly, 
while God was not in all his thoughts, he had been 
disposed to turn away from the convivial excesses of 
his associates at sea, how was he likely now to ap- 
preciate such approaches to the same intemperance, 
in connection with eternal realities, amongst the pro- 
fessed heralds of the Cross, whose duty it was to warn 
men ^' to flee from the wrath to come?"'^' 



* Memoirs of the Lives of Robert Ilalduae, and James A. Ihildano, p. 132 
N 



194 SPIRITUAL DEATH. 

Painful and profoundly instructive as the incident 
now mentioned is, we have yet more humbling evi- 
dence of the danger to which men are exposed by 
their familiarity with sacred things. In the auto- 
biography of the Rev. Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane, 
we read, " Many of the ministers of Scotland were 
genuine Socinians. Many of them were ignorant of 
theology as a system, and utterly careless about the 
merits of any creed or confession. They seemed 
miserable in the discharge of every ministerial duty 
When they preached, their sermons gene- 
rally turned on honesty, good neighbourhood, and 
kindness. To deliver a gospel sermon, or preach to 
the hearts and consciences of dying sinners, was as 
completely beyond their power, as to speak in the 
language of angels. And while their discourses were 
destitute of everything which a dying sinner needs, 
they were at the same time the most feeble, empty, 
and insipid things that ever disgraced the venerated 
name of sermons They had no more reli- 
gion in private than in public. They were loud and 
obstreperous in declaiming against enthusiasm and 

fanaticism, faith and religious zeal But 

though frightfully impatient of everything which 
bore the semblance of seriousness and sober reflec- 
tion, the elevation of brow, the expansion of feature, 
the glistening of the eye, the fluency and warmth of 
speech at convivial parties, showed that their heart 
and soul were there ; and that the pleasures of the 
table, and the hilarity of the light-hearted and the 



THE UNCHANGING WORD. 195 

gay constituted their paradise, and furnished them 
with the perfection of their joy." ^ 

It is thus that men are degraded by the perversion 
of what was meant to ennoble. It is thus that of all 
the piteous spectacles which our world presents, few 
are more sad or distressing than that of a godless 
minister of religion ; such a man 

" Is branded to the last, 
What atheists call him — a designing knave, 
A raei'6 church juggler, hypocrite, and slave. 

***** 
The sacred function in his hands is made, 
Sad sacrilege ! no function but a trade." 

— When the standard-bearer falls, who will fight? 
When the Cross is torn down by those who should 
point to it, who will believe? 

And such is the process by which God, in his pro- 
vidence, often makes it plain that his own revealed 
truth alone can either reclaim man from guilt, or keep 
him steadfast in the path to glory. We, indeed, 
are prone to suppose that there is nothing fixed in 
that Word, that, like the chameleon, it takes on 
the hue of every mind that studies it. But the Holy 
One, on the other hand, demonstrates that his Word 
is the only fixed thing which our world knows. 
Like himself it is the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
ever; it either makes man right and keeps him so, 
or it detects and unmasks him as hopelessly incor- 
rigible and clean gone in guilt. It tells of the anchor 
for the soul both sure and stedfast; and when man 



♦ Sec Lives of the Haldaiics, pi). l-_>.s, li>9. 



\ 



196 MOSTMESTS OF GSACK. 

diilits airmj £ram that oMiomig, wliatevcr be Us poai- 
tionu, he is mshing iksl to miii. 

Ereiy riew of tiudi^ tiieii, calls uposi man, idnt- 

ever be bis ^here, to make sure that it is |il*irf»^ 

in bis heart br the pover of the Spiiit of God. 

ATithout that, the phjsidan maj d^cnezate into am 

athdst or a matesrialist, whose hc^es tenninateat the 

edge <^ the graTe. TTimoiit the pi^Kidii^ povier of 

trath in the sooi, the lawyer, fiaT, the Terr judges 

may become & c w i milei of poUic morak^ as miUti- 

todes have done — a patron of the fidse and the 

degrading. Withoot trmh enthroned in the heart, 

and 3. t^'Kiiiigh transition 6om daikness to ligbl^ 

r~ ^TS of rdSgion aie (mk^ blind leaden of 

the oiiua; they aze douds withoot water, c ai ii ed 

-'■■--- f winds; they aie trees whose frait withereth, 

^mL twice dead, pfaicked op by the ioot& 

5e things pr^ v^on moi the ncreshity of 

. :111th. Time ai^s it: eternity aab iti 

...sks it: poie rdigion asks it; and he is 

. to throw poison into our weHs who lenls 

TBk appeals. 

v^idd not be difficidt to show, at greater 

Jban we hai^ tanied to do, that in crery 

diere hare been moi who feared God, and 

:. testimony for his troth, often amid open 

r the obfirion of all that is sacred. like 

Comeliiis of <dd, devcot moi haxe adorned the 

doctrine of God our Savioor alike in the Amy and 

ibc ^ary. Amony the aeoomiiSished devotees of 



god's witnesses. 197 

Science, all do not forget God in the investigation 
of those laws by which He rules the world, or of 
those wonders which embody his wisdom and his 
power. Among those who cultivate the Arts, there 
have been many who, like the sculptor Bacon, might 
have caused it to be written on their tomb: " What 
I was as an artist, seemed to me of some importance 
while I lived; but what I really was as a believer 
in Christ Jesus, is the only thing of importance to 
me now.'' In every sphere, we repeat, God has had 
his witnesses, testifying to the power of his grace, 
it may be in sackcloth, as regards men, but 3^et 
in the sunshine of God's favour. And who shall 
tell what unthinking men forego, by neglecting to 
do as these believers did — to make the religion of 
Jesus their guide, and Jesus himself their Alpha 
and their Omega! He is the rock that is higher 
than we. He is a sun and shield. He is life to the 
dead, and wisdom to the unwise. It is by His might 
that we conquer, and by His righteousness that we 
are saved. It is by His spirit that we are sanctified 
— and are they the wise who ignore all this ? 

Amid such meditations as these, it is one of the 
deepest lessons which meet us in the history of man, 
that there is room in his heart for every god but the 
true One. From the sun in the firmament down to 
the meanest reptile that crawls, all have been adored. 
The foulest human passions have been exalted to 
the rank of divinities, and worshipped in gorgeous 
temples with costly parade. Even after God has 



198 man's IDOLATT^Y. 

dwelt on earth as •' God with us,'' we find men in 
millions clinging to every god but Him — not merely 
the dead, but fragments of their bones, are adored, 
as possessing power to bless. Xow, were the lamp of 
life admitteJ into the heart, it would instantly dispel 
such debasing delusions from minds of every class. 
It would guide man away from the rank to which 
sin degrades him, to that for which the gospel is de- 
signed to fit us; and the peace of God which passes 
all understanding is the portion of those who have 
thus hailed the truth of God and discarded the lies 
of men ; who have welcomed the religion of Jesus to 
the soul, and dismissed the religion of nature as a 
blind guide, the religion of Rome as a dark, debasing 
superstition, the religion of unconverted men as fit 
only to lead us more assuredly to woe. 



I 



199 
CHAPTER VIL 

RELIGION IN OUR SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 

When the Word of God has obtained its true place 
in any man's heart, it disposes at once of a hundred 
questions which were difficult or perplexing before. 
On the one hand, when we have the divine standard 
of right and wrong set up, it becomes immediately 
apparent that one class of actions are right, are 
just, are necessary, on the part of all who would 
make God's will their rule. On the other hand, 
it becomes no less apparent that another class of 
actions are distinctly prohibited. No man who be- 
lieves the Word of God 'to be his word can do these 
things. 

But between these two, or the decidedly right and 
the decidedly wrong, there are some actions whose 
moral character it is not so easy to adjust. They are 
not so exactly described in the Word of God. They 
lie on the debateable territory between the right and 
the wrong. They may partake of the one character 
or the other, according to the circumstances in which 
they are performed. They may be right, for exam- 
ple, for me in sickness, but wrong for me in health ; 
or the reverse. 

Now, it is generally among these undecided cases 
that a man's principles are exposed to the greatest 
strain. No one who professes to respects the Word 



s\ 



200 THE SABBATH LAW. 

of God can refuse to do what is decidedly right, 
and as little can he refuse to shun the decidedly for- 
j bidden. If he do not shun it, he is detected as offer- 

ing to the Bible only the mockery of respect — to 
its God only the semblance of homage. He has 
extinguished the lamp of life, and deliberately walks 
in darkness. 

In regard, for example, to the Sabbath law, certain 
things are distinctly commanded, and other things 
are as distinctly forbidden. There can be no doubt 
in any mind which has bowed to the supremacy of 
God, or recognised his right of property in us and 
ours, that he claims a seventh part of our time as his 
own, to be employed in his service and in preparing 
for his abode for ever. Our blessedness here and 
hereafter is thus involved in that law ; and all objec- 
tions to spend the Sabbath with God, are suggested 
by ignorance of what is at once our chief good and 
our chief end — God. 

But it is equally certain that works of necessity 
and mercy are not prohibited ; and it is regarding 
these that a man's principles are put to the most de- 
cisive test. It is not possible to lay down any rule 
applicable to every case, for what is necessity at one 
time may be no necessity at another; or what is 
mercy in one case — for instance, to the aged and the 
feeble — may be indolence and sloth in others. Between 
the unvarying right, then, and the unvarying wrong, 
lies the territory where men are tried as moral agents. 
Will they use their liberty, or will they abuse it? 



THE EXCELLENT OF THE EARTH. 201 

Will they grasp at feigned reasons for violating the 
Sabbath law? AYill they be guided by the necessity 
which God creates, or will they fabricate pleas and 
pretences for themselves, under cover of which the 
law^ of God may be broken, and the consciences of 
men entangled or defiled? 

Now, our ordinary Social intercourse belongs to the 
class for which it is difficult or impossible to lay down 
rules which are applicable to all occasions. It is a 
divine maxim from which we cannot swerve, that our 
" speech should be always with grace, seasoned with 
salt." Whatever is offensive or unholy should not be 
once named among us; but still it is difficult to lay 
down any rules which apply to every case. On the 
one hand, there are men with whom intercourse the 
most cordial may be cherished, nay, earnestly coveted. 
Where ^' they that fear the Lord speak often one to 
another, while the Lord hearkens and hears,'' the 
man of God may expect to find what will gladden his 
soul. " The excellent of the earth" can impart bless- 
ings of the highest order, for the law of the Lord is 
on their lips. But, on the other hand, there are the 
profane, the godless, who walk through the world 
trampling on the laws of the Eternal, and with these 
we can hold no willing intercourse, unless we would 
catch their spirit, and at last share their doom — '^ The 
companion ot fools shall be destroyed.'' But between 
these two classes there are various shades of charac- 
ter; and it is in reference to theae that our difficulties 
in life actually occur. 



202 THE ASSEMBLY OF THE UNGODLY. 

There is one passage in the AYord of God* which 
may throw light upon this subject. A patriarch is 
speaking of certain cruel deeds, which he contemplates 
w ith strong emotion. Aware that man cannot be much 
in contact w^ith what is immoral without being pol- 
luted, or associate with the profane without learning 
profanity, he thus expresses, in graphical language, 
the recoil of a pure or an upright mind : " my soul, 
come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, 
mine honour, be not thou united." He is referring to 
his own sons, but he feels that his honour w^ould be 
laid in the dust were he associated with them in some 
of their doings ; and he therefore plants a beacon 
over the spot of danger, to warn us away from what 
may end in death. He enforces the w^ords, " Have 
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness/' 
He, in substance, asserts what Paul asserted seven- 
teen centuries thereafter, " Evil communications cor- 
rupt good manners." He takes up the language of 
John, and says in effect, " He that bids God- speed 
to an ungodly man becomes a partaker of his evil 
deeds;" and thus we have, at least, a general rule 
for universal guidance — The godly cannot choose 
the godless for their associates. 

To illustrate this point, we observe: Enter some 
societies. Listen to the conversation which excites ; 
notice the amusements which exhilarate — the plea- 
sures which impart the greatest gladness. Might 

* Gen. xlix. 6. 



FORBIDDEN INTERCOURSE. 203 

they not all exist in a world where the Son of God 
is unknown — where no need of him is felt, and no 
reference to him made? It could not be discovered 
from such social intercourse, that men are sinners, 
that they need a Saviour, or that there is one pressed 
01. their acceptance by the God whom they have 
offended ; nay, a single reference to these things 
would cast a cloud over the scene, would turn its 
mirth into muteness, and be regarded as an offence. 

Now, wherever that is common, the earnest 
Christian cannot prosper; his soul must pine; it 
is deprived of what is to it like vital air, and 
plunged into an atmosphere of azote. There may 
be cases where duty compels some humble believer 
to witness such things, and at the sight his heart 
must be sore pained within him ; but where the lan- 
guage of Canaan is not spoken, where the things 
of God are not relished, where He, the soul, and 
eternity do not obtain the prominence which hea- 
venly wisdom has assigned to them, a child of God 
will not willingly go; he will never go of choice; 
duty may compel, but the feelings of the soul even 
in that case must be like those of the Jews by the 
rivers of Babylon, when they said, " How shall wo 
sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" Children 
are reared — friends are entertained — sometimes the 
dead are buried, amid unequivocal proofs that God is 
forgotten ; and should not a believer in Jesus " flee 
these things?" 

Wherever we look in the wide domain of nature, 



204 



LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE. 



K 



we may notice that it is an universal law^ — Like 
attracts like. We do not find a timid bird asso- 
ciating with its natm-al enemy, a bird of prey. They 
fight. — We do not find the gentler animals seeking 
to associate with the beasts of prey. — We do not see 
the men of high civilization associating, in common 
life, with the savage or the gross — there is always 
something monstrous or unnatural where that uni- 
versal law is outraged. Such a thing is commented 
on as a marvel, a departure from the established order 
of nature. Just as the fishes of the deep have their 
element, and the birds of the air have theirs, there 
is a broad unvarying line separating the different 
orders of creatures in the world which God has 
made. 

Now, to apply this to our present subject, that law 
reigns with more than common force in the domain of 
grace. Has the truth of God taken possession of any 
man's soul? Has the wisdom which comes from above 
been consulted? Is God's revealed mind placed high 
above the highest of all authorities? Then from that 
day, that man cannot repose, with the confidence of 
cordial friendship, upon him who turns the truth of 
God into a lie, or the authority of God into a name : 
there must be a separation, however painful it may be. 
Does the love of Christ constrain an}^ heart and soul? 
Under that constraining power, do old things pass 
away, and all things become new? Then, '' unto the 
assembly of the ungodly, mine honour, be not thou 
united,'' becomes the language of that soul. Has 



REPULSIONS. 



205 



any man felt that salvation must take precedence of 
all besides, in the mind of a rational being ? Then 
that man cannot consent, or choose to consort, with 
those who are ripening their souls for an undone 
eternity, In spite of the warnings of their God. Has 
any man felt that the high concerns of an infinite 
futurity demand instant attention, and adjustment 
on the earliest possible day? Then that man can be 
no willing party to the wide conspiracy formed by 
worldly men against that futurity, and all that is 
momentous there. Has any man discovered that, to 
live only for the present hour and its pleasures, is to 
sink to the level of the beasts which perish ? or that 
to be a cow^ard before man's frown, and to have no 
fear of God's, is to act an impious part? Then the 
man who has made such a discover}^ will take up the 
language of the patriarch ; he will shun the company 
of men who prefer what debases to what ennobles, 
for he clearly sees, or deeply feels, that their com- 
pany is contamination. 

Since these things are so, the general law in grace 
is established — There can be no friendship, of choice^ 
between a godly and a worldly man. Their hearts, 
their feelings and sympathies, cannot coalesce upon 
the most momentous of all topics — God, eternity, 
and the soul; and just as water repels fire, or fire 
water; just as thevulture cannot and does not choose 
the dove for its mate, the soul of a man who loves 
God, who believes in the Saviour, and who would 
^I'ow in holiness, is repelled and chilled by the as- 



206 THE WISDOM OF SCRIPTURE. 

semblies where these great realities are Ignored. He 
cannot, without self-inflicted degradation, walk in the 
counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sin- 
ners, or sit in the seat of the scorner. 

But it has already been noticed, that there is nothing 
strained, nothing extreme or overdone, in the Word 
of God. Whether it be giving a command, or issu- 
ing a prohibition, it is always wise, always considerate 
as to man's condition — if we may presume with such 
a word, it is always judicious. We are more and 
more struck with that fine peculiarity of the Bible the 
longer we study its ever-blessed pages. 

Now, in connection with our Social intercourse in 
common life with men not godly, we have an in- 
stance of this considerate care in the Word of God. 
In writing to one of the churches.* Pan r.d occa- 
sion to lay down rules for their dealings witli unholy 
men. He prohibits such intercourse; ai^ ' in giving 
the prohibition, he points to some of the impious by 
name. After indicating their crimes — too gross to be 
lightly mentioned — he adds, "Yet not altogether must 
ye refuse to company with such men, for then must 
ye needs go out of the ivorldJ^ In other words, the 
believer has duties to do in the world; and these he 
must discharge. His principles may be put to the 
test ; his heart may be pained and vexed ; what 
he hears and sees may distress or imperil him ; but 
still, even amid such trials, duty, luhen it is daty^ 

* 1 Cor. V. 9-11. 



THE YOUNG CONVERT, 207 

must be done. A man is not merely not at liberty — 
he is forbidden, to flee from bis post. He is to lean 
the more on God when temptation meets him in the 
path of duty; but he may not forsake the path. He 
has duties perhaps to unconverted kindred, and to 
those who depend on him in life. He has duties to 
discharge to the Church and to God, and these no 
man is free to forsake. On the one hand, the most 
lovely earthly affection is to be put aside whenever 
it opposes the will of God; but, on the other, we are 
to remember, that wherever God has placed us. He 
will keep us — as our day is, so our strength will be. 
But do we rush into danger unsent ? Do we meet it 
while we are in pursuit of pleasure, and not in the 
path of duty? Then we may expect to fall; nay, we 
have fallen already. By tempting God, we have 
unnerved ourselves, and shame and confusion may 
be the result. 

In connection with this, we observe that perhaps 
there never was a young convert, who, during the 
first days or weeks after his conversion, had not 
thoughts of fleeing from the post where the renewing 
Spirit found him. Aware of its dangers, perhaps 
groaning under its temptations, that young soul would 
flee, and seek that in change which can be found 
only in the unchanging One. 

Now, are the engagements of that young convert 
really sinful? Is he violating God's law? Is he, 
for the sake of gold, or honour, or any selfish end, 
sojourning near some focus of sin? Tlien all that 



n 



208 THE WORLD AN OBJECT OF PITY. 



must be abandoned ; conversion, while these things 
are retained, is a thing impossible. 

But, on the other hand, are the lines of that young 
convert cast only amid trials, and not actual sins? 
Has He who appoints the boundaries of our habita- 
tions, appointed ours where faith is put to the proof, 
and the need of Almighty grace more clearly demon- 
strated? Then, by that grace, that young Christian 
must stand ; even there it may be with him as it was 
with the three children in the tyrant's furnace when it 
was heated seven times. The highest display of the 
power of truth, the brightest trophy to the triumph 
of grace, is to see some devoted believer holding fast 
the faith without wavering at the post of duty, alike 
against the scorn of the money- worshipper and the 
grossness of the unblwshingly profane; and, blessed 
be God, his grace is sufficient even for that. 

But farther: While the Christian, in his social in- 
tercourse, tries to shun the society of godless men, 
he is to make it plain that he shuns^ because he loves 
them. We assume that that Christian will shun 
them; for he is bound to that by a law both in 
nature and in grace. But his motive is not that of 
spiritual pride. It has nothing akin to the feeling 
which dictated the words, '' Stand by, for I am holier 
than thou;" nay, he is to show that he withdraws, 
because he cannot countenance what is ruinous to 
man and opposed to the mind of God. While we 
try to make religion felt, it must be the religion of 
love, and not of haughtiness or of bigotry. We 



THE WORLD S DEADENING POWER. 209 

should remember that the world is a poor jaded 
world, and calls for pit}^ rather than for wrath : its 
men have no resting-place either for the body or the 
soul; it has no antidote for its miserj'-, no remedy 
for its disease. It is the shipwrecked seaman on his 
raft, trying to quench his burning thirst with the 
water of the ocean, only to make that thirst more 
burning still. It is the body weighed down with 
dropsy to the grave's edge, yet seeking relief in 
what only augments its misery. And all that should 
awaken pity for the world in our intercourse with it. 
Be it made plain, that we can be no parties to the 
world's ruin ; we cannot trample on the Word of God 
to gratify the sinner's love of sin. Nay, if we be 
Christians indeed, if w^e have in us the spirit of Him 
who died for the ungodly, we must love the sinner 
too well to countenance him in his ways. Our shun- 
ning of him, wherever duty will permit, is to be our 
silent protest against what the holy God so empha- 
tically describes as '^ drowning men in perdition.^' 
Love, wisdom, God, all demand that course. 

And, to re- enforce all this, let it be remembered 
that we cannot associate of choice with wicked men 
without bringing our own religion into doubt. Our 
relish for communion with God is blunted. Our love 
to the holy and the pure is lessened. The world 
to come fades away into dimness, and even a child 
of God is thus prone to catch the world's spirit by 
intercourse of choice with worldly men. All this is 
notorious in regard to those haunts where the pride 
o 



210 THE TRUE LIGHT. 

of life is pampered, and where the children of folly 
squander in frivolity or guilt the hours which are 
given to prepare for eternity and its joys. But it is 
true also of more ordinary social intercourse ; and the 
man who loves his own soul will guard, by the grace 
of God, against the first approach to the world's god- 
less ways, as he would against the first drop in a 
poisoned cup, or the first inch of a stiletto. 

We feel, however, that we must repeat the warn- 
ing — Be sure that you display the religion of love, 
not of bigotry, in separating from the world. Let 
your light shine before men, but be sure that it is 
the tnie light — Heaven's. — There is a vessel sweep- 
ing across the deep. It is night, and her hundreds 
on board are locked in the insensibility of sleep. 
But suddenly there is a collision, a crash; her tim- 
bers are breaking up; and the hundreds who slept 
so securely a few breaths before, are now screaming 
out their agonies as they sink to rise no more. And 
what caused that disaster and these watery graves? 
The man at the helm just mistook the light, and, in 
doing so, hurried some hundreds into eternity. In 
like manner, we may exhibit a false phase of Chris- 
tianity which shall tend only to ruin. It may not 
be God's light, but sparks which w^e ourselves have 
kindled, and these may only drive men nearer to 
destruction. 

But hitherto we have done little more than 
attempt to show how and why they that fear God 
should separate from those who have no fear of Him 



THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 211 

before their eyes. We have endeavourea to show 
that a godly man cannot go down to the world's 
level wdthout dragging Christ's religion along with 
him. We have been urging the followers of the 
Saviour never to let the world think that the Chris- 
tian and it are the same in their likings and pursuits. 
If we leave the world under that conviction, we have, 
given an uncertain sound, and we have therefore en- 
deavoured to make it plain that there is a broad, 
clear, deep line drawn by the Eternal God between 
the world and the church — ^between the converted and 
the unconverted — the man who lives for earth and the 
man who lives for God. They do not pass into each 
other by imperceptible shades, like the colours of the 
rainbow; they are separated like mid-day and mid- 
night; they are different in nature, in liking, in pur- 
suits, and in end. 

All this, however, is only preparatory to telling 
how the godly should proceed in their intercourse 
with each other. — A prophet has said that " they 
w^ho fear the Lord speak often one to another;" he 
has added, that ^'the Lord hearkens and hears," and 
assured us, moreover, that *' a book of remembrance 
is kept before the Lord for them that fear him and 
think upon his name." Now, amid such employ- 
ments, what can be the topics but the common sal- 
vation? What can engross the mind more than the 
death which Christ accomplished at Jerusalem, when 
he finished transgression, made an end of sin, and 
brought in an everlasting righteousness? What but 



212 TRUTH IN THE HEART. 

the love of the Redeemer, and the mercies to which 
that love opened the way, can occupy such men's 
souls? Holiness, and its author, the Spirit; grace, 
and its fountain, God; its channel, the Redeemer; 
glory, and the Almighty One who made it sure by 
his blood; that which is perfect '' when the former 
things shall have passed away;" — these and kindred 
topics may well animate the souls and strengthen the 
faith of the people of God. It is amid employments 
like these that their hearts may burn within thera, 
like the hearts of the disciples while they walked 
with the Saviour to Emmaus. It is thus that fore- 
tastes of the heavenly joys are obtained, thus that 
clusters are brought from Eshcol, and thus that the 
earnest of the purchased possession is at once 
secured and rejoiced in. To have a relish for such 
holy and hallowing employments, is a proof that we 
are born from above; our soul's native land is there; 
and to have no such relish is a proof that the soul is 
dead to the holiest and the noblest things. 

But enough to have indicated this; none can com- 
pletely fill up the sketch, for '' eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart ot 
man, the things which God has prepared for them 
that love him." Still, however, where the truth oi 
God is in the heart, it WxU well up. Attempts may 
be made to repress a gushing spring ; but it w ill rise 
at another place, and another, and another, spread- 
ing verdure and fertility wherever it flows. Now, 
the truth in the heart is a well of water springing 



, 



MARRIAGE. 



213 



up unto eternal life. It waters the waste, it purifies 
the vile, and fits us tor that home where nothing 
that defiles can enter. 

There is one sphei-e, that of married life, regard- 
ing which we offer a closing sentence. Considering 
the importance which is attached to that relation, and 
its mighty influences for good or ill, alike on our time 
and our eternity, nothing can surprise us more than 
the recklessness with which it is often formed. How 
rarely is the guidance of the Holy One sought ! 
How little is his will consulted ! How limited is 
the influence which eternal things are allowed to 
exert in the choice on either side! And who will 
marvel, then, if not a few make shipwreck of the 
faith and a good conscience, just at the threshold 
of their marriage- chamber? Who will wonder to 
see so many hearts broken, so many wives worse 
than w^idowed, so many children Avorse than orphans, 
the promise of godliness given in youth all blighted 
— the book, the house, the day of God, deserted? 
When He himself has been left out of view, it is 
as eas}^ as the downward current of a stream, to aban- 
don all besides. 

But wherever the lamp of life illumines a soul, 
this relation should be peculiarly directed by it. The 
results are for life, na}^, they are for eternity; and 
they who leave the Eternal Cod out of view in form- 
ing such a bond, are digging a pit into which the3' 
are sure to fall, or laying a snare in which they 
will assuredly b3 taken. The grace of God may win 



214 THE HEROES OF TRUTH LUTHER. 

such parties after all; but that can only be in His 
'Own holy sovereignty, according to his word, '' I was 
found of them that sought me not,'' for the man who 
ventures here without the guidance of the Wonderful, 
the Counsellor, is gambling with a stake which may 
be eternal death. — Marriage was meant to double 
man's happiness, and, when contracted in the fear 
of God, it accomplishes his purpose; on other terms, 
its misery is unspeakable. 

One closing sentence more. The difficulty and 
delicacy which are often felt in ordering our Social 
intercourse, makes a wise decidedness essential. To 
follow the right path implies self-denial ; and, what 
is often worse, it may compel us to shun those whom 
we perhaps fondly love in the bonds of nature: Now, 
to arm us for this, we should call to mind that all 
the men who have signally served their God have 
been remarkable for decision — they were every- 
where spoken against; their names were often a hiss- 
ing and a byword, because they were decided for the 
ways of God against the ways of man. Paul was 
thus decided, and we know that, for his reward, he 
had to fight with wild beasts, and contend with wilder 
men. Luther was thus decided, and Romanists, in 
every age and land, have poured forth their enmity 
against him. Calvin was decided, and men have 
piled calumny upon calumny in their attempt to 
crush him. Knox was decided, and shared the same 
portion — he is sharing it still. Chalmers was de- 
cided, and had to live and die in armour. The 



CALVIN KNOX CHALMERS. 215 

truth, and nothing but the truth of God, was their 
guide — 

"Not the light which leaves us darker; 
Not the gleams that come and go; 
Not the mirth whose end is madness; 
Not the joy whose fruit is woe." — 

The banner which the Eternal gave to be displayed, 
these men held up, that all might learn to rally round 
it; and the thnes on which we have fallen are such as 
require a wise decision, a holy boldness, a close walk 
with God, like the times of these heroes of the truth. 



216 



CHAPTER YIII. 



RELIGION THE CROWN AND GLORY OF MAN's LIFE, 

There can be no doubt that one reason why go 
many keep religion far away from the heart, is the 
supposition that it offers no present pleasure. It 
holds out promises, but their fulfilment appears 
remote, and, men fear, uncertain. It tells of enjoy- 
ment, but that enjoyment springs from causes which 
myriads cannot comprehend, and the whole appears 
to be mystical, incomprehensible, or unreal. Such 
pleasure as the w^orld can yield, the worldly mind 
can understand at once and cordially relish. It is 
at hand. It even solicits attention. It seems real 
and palpable as well as near. AVhile religion ap- 
pears to approach in the character of a jailor to 
imprison, rather than of a friend to set us free and 
spread out joys in endless succession before us, the 
world comes with sparkling bribes and with congenial 
joys. It promises freedom unbounded, and, like the 
silly bird which hastens to the blaze kindled by the 
fowler to attract it to his snare, souls in thousands 
are duped, and deceived; it may happen that they are 
undone for ever. 

But were it possible to impart to such minds some 
taste of the pleasures which are enjoyed in the paths 
which are peace, it would instantly be seen what in- 
justice their views inflict upon the truth. Its joys 



OUR JOYS. 217 

are not projected into the distant future ; they are 
nigh to us, they are even in our hearts. It does 
not give us a stone instead of bread, or a serpent 
instead of a fish^it is the world which imposes in 
that manner upon all who trust it. When religion 
comes to a worldly man to rob him of his gross or 
material joys, he fears that he is about to lose his all 
— because he knows no joy but what is earthly; and 
the very ways of God appear repulsive and irksome ; 
not a few would imitate him who ci'ied, " Hast thou 
found me, mine enemy?'' or, *' hast thou come to 
torment us before the time?" But what can yield 
joy, if not the favour of God ? What can spread 
sunshine through the soul, if not the sense of sin 
forgiven? What can impart true nobility, if not 
restoration to the image of God? What can give 
peace, if not the Prince of Peace? What can dry 
our tears or soothe our sorrows, if not He who 
came as a Comforter to earth, and who re- erects the 
kingdom of God in the soul? Amid all that pleni- 
tude of mercy, men may still persist in thinking that 
the truth is a bondage, and that its joys are shadowy 
or evanescent ; but that can only be because their 
hearts have never bowed to the majesty or rejoiced 
in the love of their G od. 

And this repugnance to His truth is sometimes 
augmented, when religion begins to be contem- 
plated with more care than the world commonly 
bestows on it. When men, for example, read the 
words — "Godliness is profitable unto all things. 



218 THE GAIN OF GODLINESS. 

having the promise of the life that now is, and of 
that which is to come/' their perplexities sonietinies 
increase. That godliness has the promise of the life 
that is to come, multitudes may passively concede, for 
they bestow no thought upon the subject. But when 
their attention is drawn to the fact, that the promise 
farther embraces the life that now is, men are not pre- 
pared to acknowledge the truth. Godliness does not 
permit a man to ask, What will my fellow- mortals 
approve? Its all-decisive question is, What has God 
said ? It never pauses to inquire, What will men 
think ? what is current, or what is countenanced 
among them? It goes at once to the fountain-head, 
and seeks to ascertain what God has decided ; what 
standard He has set up ; what aim or end proposed. 
That once ascertained, the godly immediately feel 
bound thereby. They are in a court from which 
there is no appeal, or a hand from which there is no 
escape. Now, as they cannot do as others do, as 
they dare not pursue the world with the intense 
avidity of multitudes, how can it be tnie that godli- 
ness has the promise of the life that now is? 

^loreover, are not the men called godly often hated, 
and persecuted, and of all men the most miserable? 
Is not this their promised lot — '' In the world ye 
shall have tribulation;" or ''The world shall laugh, 
but ye shall weep and lament?" How, then, can it 
be true, the question again and again recurs, that 
such buffeted men have the promiise of the present 
life ? Nay, does not an apostle himself confess, that, 



eZaV. 219 

in certain conditions, Christians may be of all men 
the most miserable ? 

With all these things, however, full in view, we 
still declare that the promise is true, and that no 
man r-^ill y enjoys this world except the man of God. 
Whether it be in the Heart, that heart is the happiest 
whose godliness is greatest ; or in the Home, that 
home is the most blessed where godliness is the most 
ascendant ; or in the Workshop, that workshop is 
ever the best conditioned, and the most free from 
those things which rudely shock man's moral nature, 
where the fear of God is most felt ; or in the Market- 
place, that business is ever the most healthy, the least 
exposed to panics or to failure, where the lamp of 
life, the Bible, sheds light upon our path. Gain 
without godliness is gold put into a bag with holes. 
It is a rusted and a moth-eaten thing ; it eats the 
flesh as doth a canker. 

Let us now, then, glance at religion in its general 
bearing upon the life of man on earth. It is the 
appointed Director of life ; it is the Ornament and 
the joy of life ; it is the prelude, the foretaste, or the 
earnest of the Life to come. — Viewed under these 
aspects, it may not be difficult to discover the folly 
of those who act in the spirit of Esau, and barter 
away their birthright for pleasures which perish in 
the using ; or the wisdom of those who seek that 
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, 
which are guaranteed to the Christian by an eternal 
covenant. 



220 THE GUIDE, THE COUNSELLOK, THE FRIEND. 

As the Director of life, then, it cannot be difficult 
to show that true religion is all-important. 

Can we, in the nature of things, ever find a wiser 
gnide than the only- wise God ? Is not that man 
under some dire infatuation, who thinks that he can 
discover a safer? But true religion, the religion 
which the Spirit of God has embodied in the Bible, 
just consists in being under the guidance of the 
Holy One, in thought, word, and deed. 

Can we, in the nature of things, ever find a path 
more pleasant than that in which the Eternal leads 
us ? Now, the religion of truth just places us in the 
narrow path to glory opened up by God. 

Can we be sane, and at the same time pretend 
to select a better standard, a better rule, a better 
aim, than that which God prescribes? Now, pure 
and undefiled religion just consists in making that 
standard, that rule, that aim, our own. Like the 
ship on the ocean, driven by the wind and tost, it 
may often seem as if all hope were gone ; but if 
w^e be godly, that is, if we have religion in the 
heart as the Spirit of God plants it there. One comes 
to us even upon the angry waves, and his presence 
makes a calm. Whatever be our condition, here 
is a Guide. Whatever be our perplexity, here is 
a Counsellor. Whatever be our loneliness, here is 
a Friend. Whatever be our tendency to wander, 
here is one at our right hand, proclaiming, '' I am 
the way.'^ Could the heart of man be persuaded to 
follow the Lord fully, would he consult only for an 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF TRUTH. 221 

hour with reason, and with common sense, thousands 
more might be found in the path which leads to 
glory and to honour. 

And let it be remembered that the directions which 
are given to guide the godly in the way are authori- 
tative and divine. We have more than a royal 
road to heaven — we have a divine one. The man 
whose religion is planted in the heart, is not guided 
by opinions, but by verdicts ; and these are the ver- 
dicts of the unchanging One. They are not conjec- 
tures — they are the decisions of an infallible Judge ; 
they are the very maxims, the very laws by which we 
shall be tried, when we stand before the great white 
throne, and the Judge of the quick and the dead. 
Some men act as if they were at liberty to cancel the 
decisions of God; to review them, and indorse or 
reverse them at pleasure. In this manner, the word 
of the Supreme, which he cannot alter without ceas- 
ing to be true, is made to bend to men's liking ; and 
if it will not bend, they break it. But the man who 
holds the lamp, and is therefore truly wise, makes it 
a maxim in his life that he cannot judge the Wo.d 
of God — It judges him. He cannot bring his reli- 
gion to the Bible— He nmst get his religion from it. 
He does not consult the sacred page with the view 
of welcoming or rejecting it at pleasure. Nay, it is 
the sovereign umpire in every perplexity. It is 
the director of his steps, and the sun of his soul. 
Guided by it, and by it alone, that man walks under 
the direction of the Father of lights, with whom is no 



222 THE LAMB OUR LIGHT. 

darkness at all, to that abode where the glory of 
God is manifested to all, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof. 

They who have thus surrendered their souls to the 
guidance of God in his AYord, have felt, in their own 
experience, how blessed it is to have Him for their 
light ; they never yet were in a position for vv'hich 
the onl}^ wise God has not made provision ; the 
lamp of life is always trimmed by the very hand 
which lit it. 

— One is persecuted for righteousness' sake; the 
man who hates the truth appears anxious to "chase 
him up to heaven.'^ But even then, the ear of faith 
can hear Him whom the world hated yet more, pro- 
nouncing a blessing over all who suffer in the paths 
of godliness. 

One has had to follow child after child, or brother 
after brother, to the tomb ; but has he not been told, 
perhaps at the edge of the grave, of Him who is the 
resurrection of the body and the life of the soul ; 
and that them who sleep in Jesus, God will bring 
with him from the dead? 

One has neither father nor mother, nor friend on 
earth to lean on — he is absolutely and utterly an or- 
phan ; but is he not told, '' When father and mother 
forsake me, the Lord will take me up?" Is it not 
added, " I will not leave you orphans? " 

One has cherished dreams of happiness on earth 
— he is expecting here what God declares we can 
never, never find. Well, He came, and proved that 



VICISSITUDES. 223 

his declaration was true ; in mercy and in love he 
came, though the lacerated heart felt that the istroke 
was sore. The gourd withered. The frail reed broke. 
The shadow flitted avA^ay. The Word of God Avas 
verified, and the happiness of earth appeared rather 
like the lightning flash, than the steady shining of a 
sunjiner day. But did not He who wounded heal ? 
If that soul had godliness, was it not made apparent 
that the sovereign Lord of all had something in store 
for it better than it was choosing for itself? 

One is tottering very near the grave. However he 
may cling to life, he cannot now be blind to the fact 
that the last resting-place of man must soon be a 
resting-place to him. But just then, just there, if 
that soul be godly, a light appears. It irradiates 
the toinb. It illumines the vast unknown beyond it ; 
and almost in the language of a hosanna, such souls 
have passed away exclaiming, '^ To me to die is gain.'' 

Or, last of all, one has felt, what many never feel, 
the sinfulness of sin. That soul has discovered how 
foolish as well as wicked it is, to contend against 
Omnipotence. It feels that man forsakes his own 
mercy by cherishing thoughts, or doing deeds op- 
posed to the mind of God; and that as well may 
we expect comfort on the rack, or pleasure from 
the blaze which consumes us, as joy in that path 
which the Holy God has forbidden. According to 
the Word of the Lord, that soul has discovered what 
it is to be exposed to the wrath of God and of 
the Lamb ; or how like the career of the suicide, 



J^^ 



224 THE PTLLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE. 

or the maniac, is the course of those who live in 
sin unpardoned, with a soul unsaved. But it has 
also discovered that the Word of God has devoted 
passage after passage, or Psalm after Psalm, to the 
subject of pardon. In one aspect, that is the burden 
of the Bible^s lessons — to tell how free, how^ im- 
mediate, how complete, is the forgiveness provided 
by Him whose tender mercies are over all his other 
works. No entreaties so tender, no lessons so plain, 
no commands so cogent, no promises so full, as those 
which relate to the fountain opened for sin. The 
earnest soul thus discovers that the word is indeed a 
light to man's feet, and a lamp to his path. It is 
a light shining in a dark place — a director}^ from 
heaven for man on earth — the very God of truth is 
there pouring encouragement, or joy, or hope, into 
the heart. 

When we buffet wdth a baffting tempest, how glad- 
dening is the glimmer even of a lamp seen through 
the drift, telling us of comfort and of home ! When 
we have long been driven by the waves and tost, so 
that hope has fled and exertion become paralysed, 
how welcome the haven of our rest ! When 
strangers have long been our only associates in a 
foreign land, where no familiar face w^as near to greet 
us with its smile, how pleasant to know 

" There is an ej^e will mark 
Our coming, and look brighter when we corae ! " 

— And how much more gladdening that Word of 
God which irradiates the path of a believer, a pillar 



THE HALCYON. 225 

of cl^nil by day, a pillar of fire by night ! In joy or 
III sorrow, in youth or in age, in his home, in his 
pla^e of toil or of business, amid unceasing activities, 
or when the sands of life are ebbing low, such a man 
baF a directory a*t every hour of need, a counsellor 
ill every difficult}^ — enough to crown his weary life 
with a portion of the jov of his God. 

We meet with some who have manifestly no guide 
but passion, or feeling, or human opinion. They there- 
fore live in a state of constant fretfulness and mental 
f^ner, at once troubling and troubled. While others 
have an anchor cast within the veil, these men are 
driven by the wind and tost. Some are kept in per- 
fect peace, even amid the agitations of life ; they 
are like the little bird w'.iich is said to build its 
nest amid the breakers of the sea, and is most calm 
when perched on the crest of an angry wave. Others 
are like the restless sea; and whence this differ- 
ence ? The divine directory is in the hand of the one 
class ; it is ignored or perverted by the other. The 
divine mind is the mind of the one ; caprice and the 
changing passions of a troubled soul form the stand- 
ard or the tyrant of the other. To the one, truth 
is truth, in the heart, the home, and the place of 
public resort ; to the other, truth is but a name. — 
The bodies of those who live under a directly verti- 
' cal sun, reflect no shadow ; at least their shadow is 
under their feet, and these shadowless bodies are 
emblems of the condition of those who live nearest to 
the Sun of Righteousness : like the children of the 
p 



226 THE ORNAME^'T ( F LIFE. 

light, they are preparing for the world where then* 
is neither shadow nor night. 

Out godliness is the Ornament of life as well a** iV.^ 
Director. 

And what is it that constitutes the beauty of a 
soul? — All tliat God has made is lovely according to 
its kind. Look at the little flower, and see what 
beauties beam upon us there. Contemplate the fir- 
mament above us, the meet type of Jehovah's immen- 
sity ; and mark the surprising loveliness which is 
there. Or examine the winged insect which buzzes 
around us, only, perhaps, to vex and to annoy — 
there are more beauties and more marks of wisdom 
in that little thing, than the science of man has yet 
been able to tell. Noav, if even these mean, these 
transient, and ephemeral things, are clothed in love- 
liness by God, may we not expect a more exquisite 
beauty in that immortal thing, the soul of man? It 
was once in the image of God ; it is capable of wear- 
ing that image again. And what is it that constitutes 
its beauty ? 

We need not again reply — It is holiness. It is 
purity like the purity of God. It is perfection like 
his perfection. Sin at the first marred the moral 
beauty, and put all that is morally offensive in its 
stead. But a new creation takes place. The original 
loveliness begins to be restored. The beauties of 
holiness decorate the soul, and with the restoration 
of holiness the restoration of happiness begins. 
Give the unholy soul the wealth for which millions 



THE MISERY OF SIN. 227 

pant ; give it an empire like that of our sovereign, 
on which the sun never sets. Let all that can glad- 
den and regale be poured into the cup of an un- 
godly man. The mere fact that he is unholy, would 
leave him deformed and unseemly; his soul would 
be wretched, craving, aching still. — A nobleman of 
ancient name and brilliant powers once ranked among 
the most conspicuous of all who dwelt in our land. 
Be was admired by millions, and, for a time, was 
''followed, flattered, sought, and sued," wherever he 
appeared. But he was slightly deformed in a limb; 
and when his eye fell on the deformity, even from 
the heights of his fame, he was chafed and chagrmed: 
it was more than a counterbalance to all the incense 
which was offered to his powers. Now, that noble- 
man was as signal for his ungodliness as he was kr 
his powers. 

But, on the other hand, place a holy soul in a dun- 
geon. Let the new, the holy nature which the Spirit 
of God imparts, be imparted to such a man. With 
that in his soul, let the persecutor wreathe his chains 
around him ; let him " five times receive forty 
stripes save one;" let all men forsake him and flee; 
— still, by the grace of God, that soul would be made 
more like the Holy One by the very sorrows which 
it encountered and the tears which it shed: and it is 
thus that godliness becomes the ornament of life. As 
the rainbow would never be seen were it not for the 
clouds and the rain, the beauties of holiness would 
never shine so brightly were it not for the trials 



228 THE JOY OF HOLINESS. 

which the Spirit of God employs to promote them. 
But when he employs them, the soul of man is 
changed into the image of the Redeemer, from glory 
to glory. Though covered by sin with wounds and 
bruises and noisome sores, it is created anew, after 
the image of G od, in righteousness and true holiness. 
The altogether lovely One becomes the model of that 
soul; and ornament after ornament is bestowed — 
such adornings as the eye of God can complacently 
regard, for they are the Avork of his own Spirit: they 
indicate the restoration of his handiwork, from the 
state of ruin into which it had lapsed, to the state of 
beauty in which it appeared when it sprang into being 
at his word. 

It is holiness, then, that is the ornament of man. 
Without that, no mental power, no constellation of 
gifts, can give beauty to our spirits, as they are seen 
by God. Knowledge may be power; but it is only 
the power of evil. Acquirements may be extensive; 
but they are only like gaudy trappings on a hearse, 
or music in a dying man's chamber, unless truth in 
the heart become holiness in the life. 

But Avhen Christianity is planted in the heart and 
soul of man, it becomes his Joy as well as his director 
and ornament. This is sunshine; all besides is gloom. 

Upon this w^e need not expatiate long. It is mani- 
fest as day to all who have submitted to the guidance 
of reason illumined by the lamp of life, the Bible, 
that Christianity introduces us to the highest joy of 



THE VAIN PURSUIT. 229 

earth or heaven, even joy in the Holy Ghost; and 
t^'hile destitute of that, whatever he may possess, man 
is wretched, and miserable, and blind. One man seeks 
happiness in sin; but did he ever find it? Nay, is it 
not like taking fire to his bosom ? Is it not like a wound 
to his immortal nature? 0, is it not a mournful deli- 
rium, to dream of finding joy in that which caused 
the creation of a place of torment — wdiich doomed a 
world to misery — which digs our graves — which lays 
us in them, and fills our homes from time to time with 
the voice of lamentation and woe? 

Another man seeks joy in wealth ; but after he has 
all that he can grasp, is not his heart still, like the 
daughters of the horse-leech, crying, " Give, give?" 
As well attempt to satisfy the hungry body with the 
name of bread, as the craving soul with material 
things. It was created to be happy in God; and, 
without him, the universe cannot fill the void in 
man^s heart. 

Another seeks joy in friendship, or in beautifid 
human affection. But remorseless death comes: he 
strikes down the object to which affection clings ; and 
where is the bereaved one now? He is well-nigh 
wearying for the grave, and so of all that begins 
and ends on earth : its blossom goes up like rotten- 
ness at last. It is simply impossible that any object 
whose root is in the dnist can gladden the soul of man, 
apart from the God wlu> made it. 

Has God, then, left us without joy? When we 
became idolators, did he leave us to our idols, to 



230 DEATH-BEDS. 

tears, and woe? Nay, there is blessedness even here 
below ; and the knowledge, the fear, the love, and 
favour of God, is its fountain-head. In reconcilia- 
tion to Him — in His image restored — in growing 
holiness — in greater and yet greater love and like- 
ness to the Saviour of the soul — the man of God, 
the man who is truly rational, finds the streams of 
his joy. God himself is the fountain ; but his 
blessings are the rills which flow from it: and he 
who has not felt this joy, is still living among sha- 
dows, and phantoms, and names. His is only the 
comb rifled of the honey; his is the dream without 
the reality; his the corruption and the death of sin, 
without the pleasures which flow from God into the 
soul. — Is the land of his fathers a source of joy to 
the returning exile? Is the breath of spring a source 
of gladness to man's fevered brow? Is the face of 
nature a source of pleasure to him who has long 
been immured amid the damps of a dungeon? Far 
more than all these together, is a sense of God^s 
favour to the soul which has returned from its wan- 
derings, to seek its blessedness again on the bosom 
of its God. 

And it is to godliness, or at least some counterfeit 
of it, that all, or nearly all, men flee for joy at last. 
Some, indeed, die like the beasts that perisli, without 
either fear ov joy. Conscience is dead before the 
body. It occasions no alarm; and such men pass 
into the presence of the Judge perhaps denying his 
very existence. But not so all. When conscience is 



VOLTAIRE. 231 

aroused from its long stupor by the nearness of death, 
how eager do some appear for the joy which religion 
promises! how gladly would they now^ grasp at w^hat 
they have practical!}^ despised, perhaps for threescore 
3^ears and ten! There is one who has spent a life- 
time in denying the truth as it is in Jesus. He 
declared that he hated the Saviour's ver}^ name, and 
did all that wit and powers the most diversified could 
accomplish to blot it from the hearts and memories 
of men. That man hated the truth with a perfect 
hatred, and gloried in his hatred ; it secured for him 
the applause of myriads w^ho felt that truth to be 
fettering, and who rejoiced in the help of one so gifted 
in their attempt to banish it from the earth. — But that 
man is dying at last, and all is changed now. Goaded 
by conscience, he flees to a poor superstition — he 
tries io soothe his soul by believing one of the most 
enormous impositions ever practised upon man. He 
eats what he reckons, or what an abject superstition 
teaches him to regard as '* the body, the blood, and 
the divinity" of Him w^hom he had so long blas- 
phemed and denied; and that very superstition of 
that dying infidel " tells where it is that man finds or 
tries to find his joy after all. It is just an infiders 
method of proclaiming, " Godliness has the promise 
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 
Or if we refer to a case less extreme than that of 
an a\'owed infidel, the same truth appears — the same 

* It was Voltaire. 



232 SIR WALTER SCOTT. 

lesson Is taught. God and his favour alone can glad- 
den or satisfy the soul. 

Another man, then, not less distingui.^hed in his 
day than Voltaire, is passing on to his great account. 
Millions in many lands have admired his genius, and 
offered incense to his name. Wherever he moves he 
is followed by applauding crowds; and if ever there 
was one who might have been satisfied with the 
homage of his fellow-mortals, that was the man. 
Princes deemed themselves honoured by being under 
his roof Royalty set him at its right hand. He 
added field to field. He determined to make for 
himself a local habitation, as he had already made 
for himself a name; and his mansion, once modest 
and humble, grew into '' a romance in stone." 

But the fashion of this world vanishes away, and 
that man must die. Before he leaves the scenes which 
his presence had long invested with smiles, he must 
read a lesson to man — had man a heart to learn it — 
more salutary and profound than any he had ever 
tried to teach. The wind of adversity blew, and 
shattered his fortunes and his hopes together. Death 
entered his abode, and one who had long been its 
joy was carried to the tomb. Then affliction laid its 
hand upon himself The body was palsied, the mind 
a wreck; and amid all this, that man's spasmodic 
efforts to resume his former self, rank among the most 
touching incidents in the chequered history of huma- 
nity. But we must listen to his own words to learn 
his tale of woe, and see how broken is every earthly 



SORROW UNSOOTHED. 233 

Cistern when man seeks joy from it apart from God ; 
how shadowy and dream-like is every earthly thing 
apart from Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, 
and for ever. 

^' When I think,'^ says this idol of millions, on the 
eve of leaving his home at the bidding of stern neces- 
sity and financial pressure ; " when I think what 
this place now is, compared with what it has been 
not long ago, I think my heart will break. Lonely, 
aged, deprived of all my family, I am an impoverished 
and embarrassed man/' 

Farther, he thus touchingly wails : " Death has 
closed the dark avenue of love and friendship. I 
look at them as through the grated door of a burial- 
place, filled with monuments of those who once were 
dear to me, and with no other wish than that it may 
open for me at no distant period." 

And as if to show that all his anguish did not 
come from without, the great Novelist says, '' Some 
new object of complaint comes every moment. Sick- 
nesses come thicker and thicker; friends are fewer 
and fewer. The recollection of youth, health, and 
power of activity neither improved nor enjoyed, is a 
poor strain of comfort. The best is, the long halt 
will arrive at length, and close all.""^' 

Now, it will be noticed in these extracts that it is 



* Sir Walter Scott. The closing chapter of his Life hy J. G. Lockhart 
ranks among the most melancholy and iiistructue i)ortions of our litera- 
ture. Could aught but a divine power undeceive the sous of men, thesa 
cliapters might undeceive them. 



234 THE MIMIC IMMORTALITY. 

the grave which closes the vista of that greatly gifted 
man ; at least he never refers to the bright ulterior of 
which the tomb might be the portal. — " I have no 
other wdsh than that the grated door of a burial-place 
may open for me at no distant period." — " The best 
is, the long halt will arrive at length, and close all" 
— it is there that the mind seems to rest. It never 
rises into the region of immortality. It does not refer 
to that favour of God which is life. As far as these 
mournful records tell, that soul had nothing to repose 
on but w^hat was soon to enwrap the body — the earth, 
and earthly things. Dazzled even to blindness by 
the mimic immortality which man bestows on man, 
the life and imniortality of the Gospel were ignored. 
Steeped in the possessions which only increase the 
thirst which some suppose they quench, that maa 
discovered and confessed that he was " an impo- 
verished and embarrassed man,'' when he might have 
exulted in the unspeakable gift, the unsearchable 
riches of Christ. 

Now, it is thus that men sow the wind and reap 
the whirlwind, by expecting that joy from things 
which are seen and temporal, which can be found 
only in the things which are unseen and eternal ; 
and it is thus that the men who 

" Hunt their misery with a zeal to die" 

proclaim to all who have ears to hear, that if we 
would have joy to the full, and blessings such as can 
satisfy the soul, they must be sought in Ilim who is 



THE BROKEN HEART. 2," 5 

our peace, "of whom and to whom are all things." 
'' Surely he is, or ought to be, a happy man/' said a 
visiter at Sir Walter Scott's abode. "AVhen I think 
of what it is now ... I think my heart will break" 
— is his own dirge-like i»esponse. 

But it is not merely in the high concerns of eternity 
that a man of God finds sources of joy. Even amid 
the cares and distractions of earth, he has often a 
peace which is independent of all earthly sources. 
He sees God in all events, and soon discovers that 
they all work together for his good : however diverse 
in their origin or aspect, they sweetly blend into 
one harmonious whole, of which blessedness is the 
product to a child of God. Think of the complex 
machinery which pours such wealth into the lap of 
our nation, by multiplying manifold its productive 
power. How intricate in its parts ! how apparently 
incoinprehensible to an inexperienced mind; yet how 
simple, how exquisitely beautiful in its results I Or 
think of the sunlight in which all nature rejoices. It 
can be decomposed into seven primary elements, yet 
how simple and how lovely is the product of their 
combination ! And so it is in the various events 
of providence : they all blend into one harmonious 
result ; they are all presided over by our Father who 
is in heaven ; and they all pour into the soul of a 
believer more real joy than the world can know, even 
" when its corn and its wine are increased." 

But the crown and consummation of the whole is, 



236 THE MILLENIUM. 

that godliness is not merely the Director, the Orna- 
nienfc, or the Joy of this life; it is the prelude to the 
Life that is to come. 

AYhat are to be our employments in heaven? How 
shall we be sustained? How perceive, or feel, or 
rejoice? Shall we recognise in glory those whom 
we loved on earth? — or is the Alpha and the 
Omega of faith, the Alpha and the Omega of fruition ? 
These, and a thousand other questions, are raised by 
the curious mind; but the most that we can say in 
reply is, '' It doth not yet appear what we shall be.'' 
There will be praise in glory. There will be follow- 
ing the Lamb. There will be satisfaction with God's 
likeness. There will be the fulness of joy and plea- 
sm-es for evermore. But after all, the mind, while in 
the body, is exhausted by the effort to comprehend 
what we shall be : it falls back fatigued upon the 
words of hhn who once lay on the Redeemer's bosom, 
" It doth not yet appear what we shall be.'' 

And yet there is a sense or a measure in which 
we can understand heaven. — In our day we hear 
much of the Millennium. Churches are divided on 
the subject. Brother differs from brother; and it is 
difficult indeed, definitely to ux '^ what saith the 
JiOrd" regarding it. But connected with the millen- 
nium there is one subject, con Grning which we may 
sj^eak vvith perfect decision on le undoubted authority 
of God. As the whole is composed of its parts, the 
blessedness of the millennial state can be composed 
only of the blessedness of individual souls. Now, would 



HEAVEN. 237 

I introduce that blessed era as far as I am concerned? 
Then let me make sure that Christ is already per- 
sonally reigning in me. Would I see the kingdom of 
God set up in our groaning vrorld ; and would I like 
to fix a day for its commencement ? Then let me tJiis 
day make it sure that the king of glory is on the 
throne of my heart, that '' Christ is in me the hope 
of glory." — Whatever the millennium is to be, or 
whensoever it is to begin, it can, at the most, consist 
only of Christ's personal reign. Now, he should be 
reigning at this hour in me. Be that, through grace, 
accomplished, and we are in preparation for the mil- 
lennial glory ; though the bright visions of some 
were tuimed into realities to-morrow, we should be 
found meet to enter on the jo}'' of our Lord. '' The 
millennium will never come/' said Harlan Page, 
'' till Christians are more awake to duty.'' 

And so of the eternal state. Does Christ reign in 
any soul now? Then, beyond the grave, that reign 
perfected will be heaven. Is Christ stamping on us 
now the image of the Eternal, and restoring what the 
fall ruined or effaced ? Then that restoration com- 
pleted will be heaven. Is Christ on earth showing us 
the Father? Then beyond the grave, we shall bo 
eternally restored to the Father's fav^our; and that is 
heaven, for his favour is life, and his loving-kindness 
better than life. Our joy on earth — our religion — 
when it is a fruit of the Spirit, is at once a prepara- 
tive and a prelude to the joys of heaven. They are 
the same in kind, and ditter only in degree. lie that 



238 THE BUD THE BLOSSOM ^^THE FRUIT. 

is holy In a measure now, will be hoi 3^ in perfect ior^ 
at last. He that loves the Saviour in a measure now, 
will love him in perfection beyond the grave; here 
we sec tlie bud, on high we shall partake of the ripe 
and mellow fruit— all according to the words, '^ He 
that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which 
is filthy, let him be filthy still : and he that is righte- 
ous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, 
let him be holy still." 

Let us try to find some one who is ignorant of 
the great processes of nature; one of the untutored 
savages who still hover near the margin which sepa- 
rates the rational from merely animal nature. Let 
him be ignorant, for example, of the processes of 
vegetation. AVith the one hand show him an acorn 
— a thing so small that it can scarcely serve even 
for an infant's toy ; wnth the other, show him some 
majestic oak, beneath whose ample shade the beasts 
of the field and the birds of the air find a common 
shelter. Then tell that degraded one, that that ma- 
jestic tree was once enveloped in such a little seed — • 
how incredulous, or how amazed, would that "Stoic 
of the Avoods" appear! 

And the same thing happens in regard to the 
coming eternity. Godliness is the germ, of which 
eternal glory is the majestic result. Grace is the 
bud, of which heaven is the ample fruitage. Like 
the darkling savage, we may be unable to compre- 
hend the process by which the one passes into the 
other. But our ability is not the measure of God's. 




THE KESURRECTrON. 239 

The one does pass into the other ; grace does pass 
into glory; and he is wise, he only is ^vise, who makes 
it his business on earth to tend that germ, or screen 
it from all that would crush or destroy it. He is wise 
who places it often in the clear shining of the Sun of 
Eighteousness, or under the influence of Him who 
assures us that he will refresh it like the dew. The 
delicate exotic will not otherwise grow ; and for want 
of such tending, ten thousand times ten thousand let 
it wither, and pine, and perish. 

It is a saddening thing to stand by the edge of the 
open grave, and see dust returned to the dust. One, 
perhaps, with whom we have often taken sweet coun- 
sel, upon whose arm we have leant, whose soul has 
touched our soul, with whom we had all things in 
common, even to the secrets of the heart, is entombed. 
The cold earth must hide him, and even aifection 
must hasten to bury him out of sight. But that very 
body thus consigned to corruption is yet to come 
forth a glorious body, when death shall be swallowed 
up of life. That which is sown in dishonour is to 
grow in glory, if united to Him who is the resurrection 
and the life, who has abolished death, and brought life 
and immortality to light in the gospel. Its home for 
ever is to be — 

"The city of the g:olden pavement — 
Scut of enilless festival." 

— And thus do we glance at the Spirit's fruit in the 
soul — or liod^s religion, not man's — as the crown 
and consummation of life. We have looked at it as 



240 GLORY HONOUR IMMORTALITY. 

it should reign in the Heart: Does it I'cigu there? 
We have studied it as presiding in our Homes, and 
leading all who are there in the " way of the Lord:'' 
To what extent has that been accomplished? We 
have gone, with the lamp of life in our haud, into 
the Workshop of the artisan, and tried to tell how it 
ennobles toil by sanctifying him who toils. We have 
taken that lamp, and tried to shed its light upon the 
Marts of business ; and is it the case that our mer- 
chandise and our hire are holiness to the Lord? We 
have referred to what should be the ascendency of 
God's truth in our Social Intercourse; and if it 
preside there, we are not far from the kingdom of 
heaven; nay, w^e are within its sacred borders, and 
the crown of all will be glory, honour, and immorta- 
lity, through Jesus Christ our Lord, 



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